Paw Prints in the Sand
by Bemily Q
Summary: Draco Malfoy doesn't want to be a Death Eater. What happens when he goes to Harry for help and Hermione meddles? My response to the 'Wolves run at night' challenge. A Harry/Hermione/Draco triad fic.
1. Chapter 1

**Paw Prints in the Sand**

Don't own, don't make money off of, and please don't sue. Ok, I decided to try and write my own fan-fiction Challenge 'Wolves Run at Night'. If you want to see the challenge check out my home page.

Thank you very much to MrsBates93 for being my Beta. This couldn't have been done without her. _Italics=past._ Normal font is present.

* * *

Harry sat by the fire in the library at 12 Grimmauld Place and thought about all the events that had happened to him that summer. After the events of the Tri-Wizard tournament, he knew his life was going to change. Of course, he thought that the entire wizarding world was going to prepare for the horror that was Voldemort and the war that was sure to come. Harry shook his head at that thought. The wizarding world didn't prepare, and in fact made him out to be a delusional child who was looking for attention.

Harry at least had done his best to prepare for the war with all of his abilities that summer. He read over all his school books and practiced spells the best he could without his wand. Harry had put effort in learning his magic and seeing if he could harness any of it without the use of his wand. He had especially practiced defense charms and shields. And all of my hard work, Harry thought, was for nothing. No one else saw him to be capable of handling the war that was coming. Just because Harry had fought and lived through various attacks didn't seem to matter to any of the adults.

He had thought that Dumbledore would have been preparing him or at least making sure that he couldn't get into trouble. How wrong he was. The people he had learned were members of the Order of the Phoenix had not kept him safe from the Dementors that came nor did they do anything to protect him from the farce of a trial of him defending himself.

Harry was beginning to think that Draco Malfoy was right for once in his life, that Dumbledore and the adults surrounding him couldn't protect him or anyone else for that matter. That conversation with Malfoy still made him shake his head, but, it was also was the reason for Harry being in the library for the past three nights. The conversation happened right before everyone was boarding the train to go home for the summer.

* * *

_Harry looked around the courtyard once more. I can't believe that Cedric is dead. How could I let this happen? If I wasn't so bloody noble I could have just taken the cup and he would have lived.' Harry thought to himself. He was procrastinating before meeting with Ron and Hermione and he knew he was going to have to go soon but he just needed to be alone for a little longer._

_ Harry's thoughts were abruptly interrupted when a voice interjected "Well, just my luck, I see Potty is all by himself." Harry whipped around to see a smirking Malfoy leaning against the wall right next to the exit that was the fastest way to the train. Not bothering to reply Harry started to walk toward the exit. When Malfoy moved to block his path, Harry subtly fingered his wand. _

_"What do you want Malfoy?"Harry asked. _

_Malfoy looked at Harry for a moment before replying "The Dark Lord is back." Harry waited a moment waiting for Malfoy to say something else but all Malfoy did was watch Harry. _

_"Are you here just to state facts?" Harry finally asked. Malfoy seemed to decide something and took a step forward toward Harry so that they were almost touching. _

_"I do not want to be a Death Eater." Draco said in a calm, low voice. _

_Harry blinked and stupidly said "What?" _

_"Are you hard of hearing, Potter, I just said that my entire world has come crashing down and all you can process in that puny brain of yours is 'what'?" Malfoy replied furiously. Harry just stared at Malfoy as he started to pace back and forth muttering to himself. _

_Slowly, Harry spoke. "Well, what do you want me to do about it?" _

_Malfoy stopped pacing and spat "What do you think I want you to do? I want protection! Do you know what the Dark Lord or even my father would do to me if they knew?"_

_"Yes, I think I do have a pretty clear picture of what they do to people who go against them. But why tell me? Surely, Dumbledore would protect you if you told him." _

_Malfoy looked at Harry like he had told him that the sun was purple. "Dumbledore, jeez, you really are as dumb as you look. He would probably have me running as a spy or some other shite that would get me killed faster than a cheetah on steroids," Malfoy snidely stated. _

_"So, you are asking for help from me, your worst enemy, whom you have done nothing but insult the entire time you have known me instead of your friends and family." Harry said, watching Malfoy, looking for any signs that this might be a trick to get him to let his guard down. _

_Malfoy waved that statement off "You are not my worst enemy at the moment. You have that weird noble streak in you so I know that at least you might try to protect me. Unlike my friends who might protect me as long as they aren't placed in any danger. And if the worse comes to the worse and you get me killed it would probably be with a fast Killing Curse, I would rather have that than the slow deaths I have heard of." _

_"How do I know you are telling the truth?" Harry asked hesitantly. _

_Malfoy straightened up, looked Harry straight in the eye and said "You don't." _

_"I need to think about it, Malfoy." _

_Malfoy looked for a moment as if he would draw his wand and curse Harry. "I am asking for help that might save my life, god damn it and the response I get is 'you need to think about it.'" Malfoy almost screamed at him. _

_"Yes, I understand that but frankly I don't trust you to not turn around and put a knife in my back at the first opportunity you get." Harry stated calmly while watching Malfoy's wand like a hawk. _

_Malfoy glared at Harry and Harry glared right back until the whistle of the train rang through the courtyard. "Fine," Malfoy grounded out, "I will take any vow you have in mind to prove to you that I am completely serious and not trying to trick you. Think about what vow you will have me take that will assuage your fear." Malfoy reached into his robe and pulled out a small notebook. "This is a one shot note," Malfoy spoke slowly like he was explaining it to a small child, "it will send one short note, one time, only to the intended recipient. Activate it with a prod of your wand, and say 'to Draco'. Let me know what you decide before school starts next year." With that said Draco turned around and swiftly left Harry standing there. _

* * *

After that conversation, Harry had thought long and hard about whether he would try to help Malfoy or not. Harry really thought that he would tell Malfoy no and just tell Dumbledore about Malfoy needing help. But since the events of the summer Harry had started to change his mind. Dumbledore seemed to be avoiding him and the other adults that Harry was supposed to look towards for information seemed to insist that he was a child and didn't need to know any information.

Molly Weasley's voice saying 'not to worry' or 'you're only a child' made his blood boil. Who had been facing Voldemort since he was eleven years old? Certainly not Molly bloody Weasley, Harry thought. He was even mad at Hermione and Ron for a while for not contacting him over the summer but when he heard that it was what the Order demanded of them he felt a lot better. If the adults had such trouble protecting him to the point that he had been fighting since he was introduced to the wizarding world and he was their "Boy Who Lived", what chance did a Malfoy have?


	2. Chapter 2

I am going to try and post a chapter every week (we will see how long that lasts) till this is done. Thank you everyone who reviewed or is waiting for the next chapter!

Don't own, don't make money off of, and please don't sue. Thank you very much to MrsBates93 for being my Beta. This couldn't have been done without her!

* * *

Harry sighed and looked around at the books scattered around him. He had been waiting for the house to fall asleep before creeping into the library to try and find a spell, potion, or ritual that would somehow not allow Malfoy to betray him and still give Malfoy protection. Harry had read about the "Unbreakable Vow" and had considered it but realized that the word 'betray' was too vague of a concept to use it in that spell. He and Malfoy definitely had a different opinion of what it was to betray someone. Malfoy might need to break a small promise to save both their lives and it would be a problem if he dropped dead because of it.

Harry snorted at this idea, like he would ever tell Malfoy something in confidence, but this idea made the "Unbreakable Vow" unusable. Harry had a vague notion that he needed something like a ritual that would alert him if Malfoy was trying to harm him and also alert him if Malfoy needed help. This was why he is in a library at three in the morning looking though dusty books.

Harry glanced at the fire and stood up to put the books away again and go to bed when a small sound alerted him of someone else in the room.

"Who is there?" Harry asked, spinning around with his wand pointed at the door.

"It's just me, Harry," answered a voice from the shadows.

Harry relaxed immediately. "What are you doing up, Hermione?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that same question, Harry? I woke up because I was thirsty, so I came down to get a glass of water," Hermione said with a raised eyebrow at Harry's tense behaviour.

"I'm sorry, Hermione. You just surprised me and I guess I am a little jumpy after this summer and all," Harry said with a rueful smile. He was hoping that she would accept the apology and leave to go to bed without asking any more questions. He was out of luck though.

"It is alright, Harry, but you still haven't answered my question. What are you doing up and at the library at this time of night?"

"Just finishing some homework," Harry answered quickly hoping that Hermione would buy the lie.

Harry saw Hermione's eyebrows shoot straight up at this. Harry realized that she most definitely didn't believe him, partly due to the fact that she knew him practically better than anyone else and partly because they had all finished their homework the afternoon before! Hermione stared him in the eye waiting for him to retract his lie and tell her the truth. They both knew that she had the upper hand. Harry hated to lie to her and she had the patience of a saint when it came to him. Finally after stalling for a few seconds Harry looked away and muttered "I'm looking for a spell or something that I can use to ensure someone's loyalty and protect them all at the same time."

"Why are you looking for something like that?" Hermione asked in a weird high pitch.

"I am looking for something like that because I want to protect someone that I cannot trust. I want to be able to keep them alive and to do that I need to be able to trust that they won't turn their back on me when I need them," Harry answered without hesitation hoping that she would leave him alone now that she knew the truth. Hermione seemed to blanch but Harry wasn't sure and since she had no reason to, he dismissed it as a trick of the firelight. Harry was not expecting her to say "Well, what books have you looked through? I think I can help you find something."

Harry and Hermione fell into an easy pattern of searching the library for the next few days. Hermione would spend every free second looking through the library searching for helpful materials, and since it wasn't odd to see Hermione in the library no one thought anything of it. Harry would help by putting away books that they had already scanned through during the day when he would come fetch her for working on the house. At night, Harry and Hermione would wait until the others were asleep and then sneak down to the library, where Hermione would show her finding to Harry and they would discuss the ramifications of everything she found. Harry was relieved that Hermione didn't ask questions about whom the person he wanted to protect was and she seemed to understand that he didn't want others to know what they were up to.

Harry was enjoying the time he was spending with Hermione far more than he thought he ought too. Ever since Ron had gotten the prefect badge, Harry had felt a twinge of envy when he thought of the time that Ron would get to spend alone with Hermione during patrols. He didn't think much of it until he realized how much he enjoyed getting her all to himself in the library when they were searching for this spell. So when Hermione said that she might have found something on the third morning, Harry was a little upset that her research skills were as impossibly amazing as Ron had always teased her to have.

As the clock struck one in the morning, Harry made his way down to the library. He was both excited to learn what Hermione had found and dreading that these nights with Hermione would be ending. Harry stepped into the library and made his way to the fireplace to start it up, as he did every other night. He looked around the room for the almost ratted blanket that they had been using on the floor next to the fire as a little study picnic area. Once he found everything he needed to prepare the room for Hermione's lesson (as he liked to think of them as), Hermione came stealthy into the room and sat down quickly by his side.

"I couldn't find one spell that could do what you seem to need," Hermione said without preamble.

"Then, why did you say that you might have found something?" Harry quizzically asked as it wasn't like Hermione to make a big deal if she didn't find something.

Hermione quickly hit Harry on the head and sighed loudly. "I said, I didn't find ONE spell, I found a few things that if they were to be merged together might work," Hermione primly stated as she pulled a huge dusty tomb off of a low shelf, a small pamphlet size book, and a normal looking school textbook and placed them in front of Harry.

Harry cautiously picked up the normal school textbook and was surprised to see that it was just Hermione's Ancient Runes textbook. The small pamphlet was more interesting looking so Harry put down the textbook and picked up that next. The small paper was handwritten and looked to be a potion of some kind, but some of the ink was faded but he managed to make out the words '  
Form Animal' at the top.

When Harry glanced up from inspecting the pamphlet he noticed Hermione was looking very happy with what she had found. "Umm, what are you talking about, Hermione?" Harry asked.

"Honestly, Harry." Hermione grumbled. "Would it kill you to read what I place in front of you and use your imagination to see the possibilities for once?"

"Fine, I'll explain." Hermione took a deep breath and launched into the explanation. "The great big book you see over there is a book of spells that are for werewolves. In the book there is a spell that would bind several werewolves together in such a way that they would form a 'pack'. No one in the pack could possibly betray the others without doing serious harm to their own magical cores. The spell also designates the role of each individual in the 'pack'. So, if two people were constantly trying to get their way, the magic would let one person be an alpha. This would be great for what you are looking for but it doesn't give any protection. Besides which we are not werewolves, and I don't fancy trying to become one."

"Realizing those problems, I of course, started to look for ways around them. Yesterday at lunch, I was thinking about all the homework and studying we will have to do for our O.W.L.S. this year and I remembered reading about ancient protection spells that wizards used for their families when duels for, well just about everything, were a common occurrence. I looked through my Ancient Runes textbook and found a few runes that are easily combined into the werewolf binding spell. The runes would make the 'family' be able to share magical strength, alert other 'family' members if one is in danger, and be able to find the missing member of the family, without fail."

"Of course, even combining the runes with the werewolf spell doesn't quite work, considering we are not werewolves. I was starting to despair that I wasn't going to be able to combine the magic due to that one detail and then I would have to start back from square one. I didn't find anything until a chance encounter upstairs with Buckbeak and Kreacher."

Hermione paused for a moment to catch her breath and Harry looked over the pamphlet again.

"Hermione, this isn't what I think it is, is it?" Harry gasped in wonder.

"Yes, Harry I think it is!" Hermione said excitedly.

"You found the Marauder's Animagus potion recipe!" Harry was shocked at what he was holding in his hands. Harry had asked Sirius about turning into an Animagus once and Sirius had told him that no one remembered where they had put the instructions and that he shouldn't be as reckless as his father and his father's friends were.

"We can use this potion recipe to trick the one spell into thinking that we are werewolves." Hermione continued on.

"What do we need to do for this spell/rune/potion to work," Harry asked.

"I would like to think of it as a ritual, thank you very much," Hermione sniffed. As Harry rolled his eyes she continued, "Well, we will need to brew the potion, luckily we have most of the ingredients in our normal potions kit and it needs a hair from each of us. Though, I don't know how we will get the few ingredients that we don't have."

"I suppose I could ask our resident pair of tricksters, to see if they can help us out. They owe me a favour anyway so I think they'd mind," Harry stated.

"Ok, well then, we need an open non-magical space to place the runes," Hermione continued, curiosity colouring her voice.

Harry cut her off, "Why non-magical?"

"Because, Harry we do not want any other magical influence on us. This spell connects our magical cores and we don't want to be suddenly feeling magic from somewhere else." Hermione said exasperated due to Harry's interruptions.

"Oh, ok, you can continue," Harry said cheekily, knowing why Hermione seemed annoyed.

"We also need to wait for a full moon, and before you ask why, it is because the spell is supposed to be for werewolves who would do the spell right before the moon rose and their wolf took control."

"When would be the earliest we could set this up?" Harry asked earnestly.

"If I can brew the potion right the first time, fine tune the ritual so that all aspects that we want will take effect, find the reverse in case something goes wrong, and you find a suitable space…" Hermione trailed off.

Harry raised an eyebrow but then realized that Hermione was calculating the time in her head, so he didn't interrupt. Harry's mind was whirling. It seemed like a lot of trouble to go through to protect a person that he had considered his enemy. Well, enemy wasn't the right word for it. Yes, Malfoy who he did fight and yes they exchanged insults like no tomorrow, but still they weren't enemies, if you consider how Voldemort was his enemy. Harry decided Malfoy was more like a rival. Rivals could dislike each other and fight but they still respected each other in the end and Harry had to respect Malfoy's wish to not become a Death Eater.

"I think the earliest we could try is on the Friday night one week after the semester starts for school," Hermione finally concluded. Harry nodded absently. One week after the semester starts.

Would it be too late?

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Please review! I like reviews!


	3. Chapter 3

Don't own, don't make money off of, and please don't sue. Thank you very much to MrsBates93 for being my Beta. This couldn't have been done without her!

* * *

After saying goodnight to Hermione, Harry shuffled off to his own room. As Harry crept to bed, trying not to wake up Ron, he remembered the note that Malfoy had given him. On the note, Harry wrote a simple '_yes, but conditions apply, meet me at the back of train after meeting'_, hoping the message would convey what he needed and be vague enough to not get anyone into trouble.

The next morning after getting up early, Harry found a perfect opportunity to ask Fred and George about getting supplies. The twins were in the kitchen when Harry came in to get a glass of water.

"Good morning, Harry. Did you sleep well or did your late night rendezvous prevent you from getting any shut eye?" Fred said in a boisterous manner.

"Yeah, we heard some creaking went down in the library last night," George chimed in with a wink.

Harry felt his face flame up at the insinuations that the twins were making.

Ron glanced up from his breakfast with a questionable look on his face.

"Good morning to you guys too," Harry said when his face started to cool down.

"What were you doing in the library last night, Harry?" Ron asked while eating a mouthful of food.

"Umm, I was looking for more defensive spells," Harry said quickly, hoping to keep anyone from asking anything else.

"You will find more dark offensive spells than anything that has to do with defence in that library," Sirius chimed in.

"You don't have to be looking for more spells, Harry," Molly Weasley said shrilly, "the Order is well protected and you only have a few more days until school starts again. You should enjoy them, play something with Ron."

Harry shot Mrs. Weasley a dark look at her dismissive comment that went overlooked by most.

"Well, it is good that you are taking your studies seriously, Harry," Lupin murmured trying to defuse the tension that was suddenly in the air.

"Thanks," Harry said just shy of being sarcastic. Harry moved to leave the room but as he did he was sure to signal to the twins that he wanted to talk.

Harry made his way to the front room of the house and only had to wait a few minutes until the twins showed up.

"What can we do for you, Harry?" George asked when they made sure no one else could overhear them.

"I need a few potion ingredients that are not included in this year's normal potion kit." Harry said quickly while keeping an eye out for anyone.

"Well, we are in your debt, so what do you need?" Fred asked while sharing a look with George.

Harry handed over the list that Hermione and he had complied last night.

"Hmm, most of this stuff will be easy to get with our sources on the trip to school," Fred stated, "but the question is why do you need this stuff?"

George added, "Hairs of a grey wolf is only used in very specific potions and somehow we don't think you are going to try to brew Wolfsbane for our friend Lupin."

Harry levelled his gaze at the pair of them, debating on how much he would need to reveal to get them to help him and Hermione.

After a few moments of silence, the twins shared another look. "If you cannot tell us, that is fine, Harry," Fred finally said reluctantly.

"You do know that you can come to us for help with anything, even if you can't tell us what it is," George added.

"Thanks, guys, I do trust you but this is between Hermione and I," Harry sighed and thought, _at the moment_.

With Cheshire cat grins the twins asked in unison "and how is the little lady, our voluminous styled wicked witch doing after a hard night of 'studying'.

"I am exhausted, hungry and a little peeved at someone for not waking me up this morning," Hermione stated from right behind the twins. Harry was completely amused to see how fast the blood drained from their faces. The twins apologized and fled from the room as fast as their feet could carry them leaving Harry and Hermione chuckling.

"I didn't know I was supposed to wake you up, Hermione, and frankly I thought it was good for you to have a bit of a lie in," Harry said after they had caught their breath.

"You weren't, Ginny was, but were you scared that you might have angered me like the twins?" Hermione asked with a glint in her eyes.

"Of course, the twins are smart after all. You can be one scary witch when you're pissed," Harry said playfully.

Hermione swatted at him and he danced back a couple of paces.

"Missed me," Harry teased and ran away.

Hermione laughed and started to chase him, which started an epic game of tag that encompassed the house hold going so far as to even get Sirius, Remus and Tonks involved. Hermione finally won at the end of the day by tripping Harry and sitting on him when he landed on the floor.

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Please review and thank you for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

Don't own, don't make money off of, and please don't sue. I felt bad for posting a short chapter last time so this is posted early. Thank you very much to MrsBates93 for being my Beta. This couldn't have been done without her! ^_^

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The last few days of summer break were good days for Harry. Ron, Ginny, Fred, George, Hermione and him played games and didn't worry about the war. The only reason that they didn't forget completely about it was the meetings that surrounded them and the fact that they couldn't go outside without an escort. The day that they were going to catch the Hogwarts Express, Harry was decidedly nervous. Not only was it the first time he was going to interact with his peers, a few of which who thought that he was a fame seeking prat, but also because he was going to meet with Malfoy to discuss the ritual.

Harry was glad when Sirius decided to come with them to the station. The support from his godfather meant more to him than Harry wanted to admit. It hurt him that he didn't trust Sirius enough to tell him about what Malfoy had asked of him, but he was glad that Sirius tried his best to be there for him. The crazy rush to the train station did nothing to calm Harry's nerves but watching Sirius chasing birds did ease some of the tension.

Harry's sense of unease grew when everyone boarded the Hogwarts Express and he found out that both Hermione and Ron were not going to be with him. "Come on, Harry, let's go find a compartment," Ginny said after Ron, Hermione and the twins left them. Harry followed Ginny through the train and chuckled to himself about how far down the train they had to go to find an empty compartment, knowing that he had told Malfoy to meet him at the back of the train in a broken compartment that no one used. _At least I won't have to go far to talk to Malfoy_, Harry thought to himself. Following Ginny, they met Neville and all piled into the second to last compartment.

"Hello, your Harry Potter," the girl Ginny introduced as Luna dreamily stated.

"I know I am," Harry shot back, but immediately regretted being so short with her after Neville and Ginny laughed.

"Hi, it is nice to meet you, umm why are you reading your paper upside down," Harry amended his greeting. Luna beamed back at him and answered his question while handing over her newspaper "It has special runes that let you curse your enemies by turning your enemy's ears into cumquats."

Neville and Harry's eyebrows rose but then Harry stated enthusiastically "That sounds like a really good way to curse your enemies, can I see that." Luna smiled happily as Harry dove into reading the paper.

An hour passed in a comfortable way. Harry, Luna, Ginny and Neville all enjoyed a good, if not strange, conversation. Harry found Luna's take on the world refreshing and thought that she saw more than she let on. At one point during the journey, Neville pulled out his new Herbology project, a Mimbulus Mimbletonia,which almost instantly covered Harry from head to toe with stink sap. Just at that moment the door of their compartment opened. Harry was instantly on alert thinking that maybe he had missed the time and Malfoy had come looking for him. When the door opened to reveal Cho, Harry sighed in relief and then blushed like mad when he realized what he was covered in.

"Hi, Harry, I guess this is a bad time to talk to you?" Cho said haltingly.

"Yeah.." Harry trailed off as Cho had already shut the door and was on her way back to her compartment. Ginny deftly cleaned Harry with a quick spell and tried to ease the awkward moment by saying "Well that is that then," and engaged Neville in a conversation about the plant.

Harry was surprised that he was slightly insulted that Cho had left so quickly. His life it seemed had him always covered in something or another and it shouldn't have been a reason to leave since it was an easy thing to clean off with a quick spell. Harry glanced over to his companions, and thought _maybe they are the reason she left so fast. They aren't exactly the 'cool' students, but then again they are my friends and if I like them she should try to get to know them. Wait, why do I like her in the first place, sure she is pretty and she flies but do I know anything else about her?_ Harry then noticed that Luna was watching him with her strange dreamy expression.

"It is funny how life turns out isn't it, Harry?" Luna asked.

Harry laughed and replied "You have no idea how funny it is, Luna." The awkwardness in the compartment immediately subsided and the four of them went back to enjoying the journey together.

The next time the compartment door opened it was to reveal Ron and Hermione who were back from the prefect meeting. Harry realized that the time had almost come for him to be making an excuse to leave and head for the out-of-use compartment next to them. He half listened to the conversation swirling around him, catching: that Ron and Hermione had to do rounds on the train and during certain nights of the week, Ron was already planning to abuse his position by making Goyle do lines, Luna laughing way to long at Ron's joke and who the other prefects were.

Harry perked back up when Hermione unintentionally insulted Luna.

"Hermione just hasn't read the good parts of this newspaper, Luna," Harry said with a wink at both witches.

"Should I be affronted by that Harry? Of course I have read some of that newspaper." Hermione said with an air of fake superiority.

"Well, have you read this article on how to make people's ear turn into cumquats?" Harry asked with a mischievous smile.

Hermione eyed Harry suspiciously as she replied, "No, I must have missed that one."

"So you admit you haven't read it all and don't know everything?" Harry spoke in a low whisper.

Hermione turned a bright red and whispered, "Yes."

Hermione then turned to Luna and apologized for insulting her.

Luna looked stunned for a moment before exclaiming, "Thank you! That is the first apology I have ever gotten!" Everyone in the compartment had a look of shock on their faces. Harry and Hermione shared a look that conveyed a thought that they would be friends with Luna from now on.

It was then when the compartment door opened to reveal Malfoy and his two sidekicks.

"How does it feel to be second to a Weasley, Potter?" Malfoy asked as soon as his eyes landed on Harry.

"I wouldn't know so why don't you enlighten me, Malfoy? And while you're at it let me know how it feels being a git?" Harry quickly responded.

Malfoy growled and stepped forward. "Manners, Potter, don't you know I am a prefect and can cause trouble for you if I feel like it?"

"We are also prefects, Malfoy, so why don't you go and be a git somewhere else?" Ron taunted.

"Fine, I will leave for now but know that I will be dogging your footsteps from now on, Potter," Malfoy snidely stated as he left the compartment.

Harry and Hermione shared a look of worry about the thinly veiled threat of Draco knowing that Sirius was the dog at the train station.

_Sirius might have made a grave error and revealed himself to death eaters all for me and my entertainment this morning. How could I have been so careless?_ Harry thought to himself. Ron proved that he hadn't caught the meaning of Malfoy's threat when he then asked for more food.

After a few more minutes, Harry excused himself from the compartment and headed to his meeting with Malfoy. Harry really started to think that Draco had played him at the end of the year last year and that all the work Hermione and he had put in creating this ritual would prove to be a waste of time. Harry made his way to the last compartment and ducked underneath the 'do not enter' tape and prepared to wait.

Harry was surprised to find Malfoy already there with a silencing spell already being cast.

The first thing out of Harry's mouth when he entered the compartment was "What the bloody hell was that Malfoy?"

"Potter, keep your voice down. You could have killed baby elephants shouting like that," drawled Draco before he continued, "as for your question, I had to come and trade insults with you since that is something I have done for the last four years, if I didn't it would raise some eyebrows and some people would start asking questions I don't want them asking."

"I meant the whole 'dogging my footsteps' bit?" Harry bit out, almost angry enough to just leave and let Malfoy deal with his shit alone.

"Oh, that, well that was a warning about letting your precious godfather go running where ever he wants to. I thought that was obvious," Draco said with a slight smirk on his face.

"So, are we just going to trade more insults or are you going to get to why you suggested this meeting," Draco continued.

Harry said nothing for a moment because he was really starting to rethink the whole helping Malfoy thing.

_Malfoy, really is nothing but a pain, why am I even here? He should deal with the death eaters on his own, like the rest of us have to_, Harry thought maliciously, though he made no move to leave the room.

At Harry's silence, Malfoy started to lose his calm, superior attitude.

"Look, Potter, you have got me over a barrel here. If you don't realize that, then I am telling you. I will do almost anything to not die a painful death by people like my father just because killing and torturing isn't my cup of tea. I am…sorry…for insulting you and your friends today, but I have to keep up appearances until I, well we, find a way to keep me safe. Crabbe and Goyle aren't the smartest of people but they would notice if I didn't act a certain way and they would definitely turn me over to the Dark Lord if they could. Not to mention a number of other people who would jump at the chance to destroy me," Draco started rambling.

Harry relented and stopped Draco by raising his hand. "I get it, Malfoy, trust me, I get it. I don't know why you have only come to me but I will try to protect you. I don't trust you as far as I could throw you though and that is why there are conditions to me protecting you."

Draco was about to interrupt but Harry continued forcefully, "You did agree to hear the conditions so stop talking and listen for once in your life. The first condition is that you have to participate in saving yourself. I can't protect you all the time so you will help me. I have a ritual that will simultaneously protect you and prevent you from betraying me. I need a lock of your hair for the potion that goes along with the ritual. Do you agree to that?" Harry asked.

Draco narrowed his eyes and seemed to weigh the pros and cons of tying himself to Harry before slowly nodding his head in agreement.

Harry took that as a sign to continue, "The second condition is that Hermione will be participating also in the ritual. You will be nice to her. I will not tolerate you calling her a 'mudblood' or any other offensive names. I don't care if you have to be rude to me and Ron to preserve your 'image' but you will not cross swords with Hermione or any of the girls that I am friends with."

As Harry predicted Draco exploded into action. Draco grabbed Harry by the collar of his shirt and slammed him into the wall.

"You told HER!" Draco hissed, anger clear in his voice. "How dare you! You had no right to tell anyone about my life!"

Harry shoved Draco off of him.

"I have every right to include someone I trust in protecting you." Harry spat. "I don't trust you and if you haven't already noticed, I am the number one target for both Voldemort and The Ministry. Of course I am going to have the one person who has always looked out for me watch my back now. Those are the only conditions for me helping you. It is your decision, Malfoy."

Draco looked like he would rather grab his wand and curse Harry into hell than agree to the second condition.

Harry just raised an eyebrow and waited.

Draco opened his mouth before shutting it. He then turned around and Harry was about to leave when a voice stopped him, "Fine, Potter. Whatever you need me to do, I will do it."

Harry glanced at Draco seeing for the first time an almost defeated look in the other boy's eyes. Harry brought out a small vial from his pocket and gestured for Draco to place the lock of hair into it. Draco combed his hair with his fingers and carefully cut a piece off with a great flourish of his wand. He put it into the vial and placed it in Harry's hands.

"When is the ritual to take place," Draco asked with little inflection in his voice.

"One week, after the beginning of term on Friday. I will let you know where," Harry responded with more care in his voice, feeling bad about how defeated Draco sounded. Draco nodded and left the compartment without saying another word.

Harry re-entered the compartment with his friends just as Ginny was telling them, "Well we had better get our robes on. We are nearly at Hogwarts."

_It is certainly going to be an interesting year,_ Harry thought before getting ready to disembark the train.

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Thank you for reading and please review!


	5. Chapter 5

Don't own, don't make money off of, and please don't sue. Thank you very much to MrsBates93 for being my Beta. All the mistakes are mine. Thank you for all the reviewers and people who are following this story! I really appreciate it!

* * *

Harry had a sense of foreboding the moment that he left the Hogwarts Express. Not seeing or hearing Hagrid calling out, "First years this way," left a sense of unease within Harry. Just that familiar face would have done wonders for his frame of mind. As it was, Harry felt like he was on uneven ground. Harry knew that things would be different with the war and Voldemort's return but it was more than that. It was like the whole world was the same and Harry was the only one spinning out of control. The night didn't get any less strange and could be summed up with Luna comforting Harry by saying, "You are as sane as I am."

The opening feast was the same wonderful thing it had always been and Harry tried to enjoy it the best he could, considering he had missed a few of them over the years. The food was delicious as always, the candles made things bright and festive and the ceiling mirroring the night sky made it feel like Harry was home.

This wasn't to last for Harry though as a few changes made a big difference. The first change came with the Sorting Hat's song. That the hat could sense that the world had changed and that it wasn't safe anymore struck a chord with Harry. He thought about how it had said that the Houses of Hogwarts must stand together through this dark time and he wondered if perhaps Hogwarts itself knew of his pact with Malfoy.

_Could the Houses really pull together? Last year, the Tri-Wizard Tournament, was supposed to bring Hogwarts together against all the over schools and yet it failed miserably. I wonder if the threat of death would be a stronger motivator_, Harry thought as he was about to turn and voice this opinion to Hermione when a copy of The Daily Prophet caught his eye.

_Nope, I doubt even the threat of death eaters wouldn't bring people together considering most people would rather bury their heads in the sand and listen to garbage like that,_ Harry shook his head at his unhappy thoughts and was pleased to see that Dumbledore was about to make his speech and the routine silence that met his taking his place at the podium.

"Welcome to Hogwarts those of you who are starting their first year, and welcome back again to the rest of you. The Forbidden Forest is still forbidden I am afraid and if you would like to know why you can ask the few that have survived coming back from that place," Dumbledore started.

Harry, Ron and Hermione threw smirks at each other at the last statement due to all their adventures in the forest.

"Hogwarts wants everyone to get along this year and remember that spells are not to be cast between classes, especially not at one another. Quidditch trials will be held…"Dumbledore trailed off as Dolores Umbridge, the new Defence against the Dark Arts teacher, stood up and made a noise.

"Hem-Hem, thank you for that wonderful speech, Headmaster, but I would like to say a few words" Umbridge said in a sickly honeyed voice. She continued, "Teaching our young people is one of the greatest things one can do with our lives and we all want to make sure that our young people have the tool that they need to lead happy prosperous lives when they leave these hallowed halls. We must make sure however to not upset the balance of progress for a cause and progress just for progress's sake."

Harry noticed that most of the students had stopped listening to her after a few minutes due to her long winded speech but Harry knew enough that just her presence in Hogwarts was not a good sign. Alarm bells were ringing in his head when she concluded her speech with, "prune practices that ought to be prohibited."

Harry shot a questioning look at Hermione to confirm what he thought he had heard.

"Yes, Harry, the Ministry is now interfering at Hogwarts and it is probably because of them trying to keep the truth about Voldemort contained," Hermione regretfully informed him.

Harry had thought that the first night back couldn't get any worse so he was completely taken aback when Seamus claimed that he might believe what The Daily Prophet was printing about him. Harry almost flew off the handle and punched his dorm mate but something told him that he shouldn't do that.

_It might have been the Sorting Hat's speech of coming together_, Harry mused later.

Instead Harry looked Seamus in the eye and said in a low voice, "Seamus, you have known me since both of us started Hogwarts. In all that time have you ever seen me trying to get more attention? Do you honestly think that I want to be warning people that the darkest, Dark Lord in history, the Dark Lord that killed my parents is back? Do you honestly think that Cedric died from some accident? I am telling the truth and I will continue to tell the truth because someone has got to warn people of what is coming." Harry turned around then and went to bed hoping that tomorrow would be a better day as Seamus left the dorm in a huff.

The next week turned out to be very trying for Harry. Usually, the only class that was a trial for Harry was Potions class and that was mostly due to Snape's obvious hatred towards him or Draco throwing things into his cauldron to destroy the potion. Draco didn't even acknowledge him or Hermione and the lack of attention from that department aroused some very interesting feelings in Harry.

On one hand he was very relieved not to have to watch his cauldron for flying objects or trade barbs setting off his temper while making delicate potions. He also noticed that Draco didn't approach Hermione with his usual insult about the status of her blood. That was a major relief. On the other hand, Harry had gotten used to the attention from Draco and the lack of anything from him made Harry edgy. It was like a withdrawal of something that Harry was addicted to without being aware that he was addicted to it. Potions was still horrible with Snape making his life miserable by vanishing any potions of his that weren't perfect and giving him a zero for the day but that became second to the horror of Professor Umbridge's Defence against the Dark Arts class.

The first day of classes set the tone for that first week. Professor Snape quickly took points off Harry for some imagined slight and vanished his work so that he got a zero for the day. Harry, Hermione, and Ron left the dungeons quickly and made their way to their next class. Professor Umbridge had decorated the room in an awful pink colour and had pictures of cats everywhere.

"Who let out the pink painting fairy?" Ron joked with the other students who entered.

Harry looked at Hermione and said "Does this disturb you as much as it disturbs me that our classroom where we are to learn defence looks like someone's horrible living room?"

Hermione nodded and responded "Yes, I don't like the décor but I am more worried about what the Ministry is doing teaching defence if they don't acknowledge a need for it."

Harry turned Hermione's words over in his head and figured that Hermione had cut to the real thing that they should be worried about.

"Hem, hem, welcome to your first Defence against the Dark Arts lesson of the school year," Umbridge sweetly spoke, "I know that the past few years you have had a spotty lesson plan with this subject and I will strive to fix those problems. Please open your books to the first chapter and read."

Harry opened the required book and started reading. He immediately noticed that the book seemed to be more to do with how to avoid using magic to defend oneself instead of useful information. Harry looked up and around the classroom and noticed that Hermione hadn't even opened her book and was staring at Umbridge with determination as Umbridge tried to avoid looking at her. When enough of the class had stopped reading to watch Hermione, Hermione slowly raised her hand into the air.

"Yes, Miss…" Umbridge finally started.

"Granger," Hermione said while leaving off the customary 'Professor' off her address.

"Yes, Miss Granger. What seems to be the problem?" Umbridge asked.

"I have read the entire book and it doesn't seem to have any useful information about using defensive spells. You have also not mentioned practicing the spells," Hermione calmly pointed out.

Although Hermione said this with an air of calm her statement caused the whole class to go on high alert as if knowing that the following discussion would be year changing.

"_ It is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge will be sufficient to get you through your examinations, which after all, is what school is all about._" Professor Umbridge replied.

This set off the entire class and soon Harry's temper got the best of him. Professor Umbridge was quick to take points off him and give him detention for the entire week. Harry was fuming when he left the classroom to deliver whatever the piece of parchment was that Umbridge had given him to give to Professor McGonagall.

Professor McGonagall response to Harry's frustration left Harry feeling dazed and vulnerable. Professor McGonagall had told Harry to 'keep your head down,' and that 'it isn't about the truth'.

Harry felt sick. He understood that he had to keep a better lid on his temper and not let Umbridge play him like he had today, but to tell him to just keep quiet about the truth, it was crazy! Harry knew he had to tell people the truth and help them prepare for when Voldemort made a move because if he didn't then people would be unprepared and possibly die. He understood that the Ministry was out to get him but he thought that Hogwarts would help him, not just tell him to 'keep his head down.'

_Draco, was right_, Harry mused_, they would not have protected him, they act like they don't have the power but they could if they really wanted to_. Harry chewed this thought over for the rest of the day. Hermione looked worried for him and Ron tried to cheer him up but he waved them off and continued to brood.

That night, Harry learned about the cruel, sadistic side of their new Professor. Professor Umbridge had him writing lines using a 'Blood Quill'. When Harry started writing and realized what he was using he stopped and gaped at her.

"Is there a problem, Mr Potter?" Umbridge said gleefully.

"This is a 'Blood Quill'," Harry said quickly, "these were banned from being used at Hogwarts in the 1970's."

Harry knew this fact due to when he was in his first year and Filch had rambled on about the horrible things they did to students who broke some of the rules. Harry had been disturbed by the ramblings and had looked up past punishments in the library.

Professor Umbridge's face turned sour.

"You will be using that quill, Mr Potter. Hogwarts has been diminished recently due to the letting go of rule breakers. You will write 'I must not tell lies' until it sinks in. Do you understand, Mr Potter," Umbridge said with a sickly sweet hiss.

Harry, remembering Professor McGonagall's advice, nodded his head and set to work.

Later that night, after Harry had finished his lines, he got back to the Common Room hoping to go right to his supplies and bandage his aching hand. He had just gotten through the hole when Hermione's voice rang out.

"Harry! You look pale, is everything alright?"

Harry trudged over to where Hermione was obviously waiting for him and sat down.

Harry decided not to tell Hermione about the detention and replied "I'm fine, Hermione, just a little overwhelmed by how this year is going."

"Well, I have some news, I have made progress on the ritual's potion and it should be ready by Friday! I left it in the first-floor girls' bathroom with Moaning Myrtle guarding it. All we need now is to find a space to perform the ritual and we should be all set," Hermione said excitedly.

Harry perked up at the news and then deflated because he was going to spend the majority of his spare time looking for a proper place and now that spare time was going to be severely limited due to all the detentions. Hermione seemed to sense the directions of his thoughts and grabbed his hand pulling him close to her. Hermione let Harry put his head on her shoulder and said soothingly, "Don't worry, Harry. We will get through this."

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Please let me know what you think of the story so far!


	6. Chapter 6

Don't own, don't make money off of, and please don't sue. Thank you very much to MrsBates93 for being my Beta. All the mistakes are mine. Thank you for all the reviewers and people who are following this story! I really appreciate it!

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Harry and Hermione devised a plan on how to look for an open area that wasn't completely saturated in magic. They realized that anywhere in the castle was going to be unusable immediately. They had initially thought that they could go to the Shrieking Shack and use the field surrounding it, but Harry found out early that the secret passage through the Whomping Willow was sealed from use. They started to look around the grounds whenever they had free time.

"Harry, we aren't going to be able to do this unless we find a place outside. I don't want to even attempt this ritual if we can be caught easily. I don't want to even go into the Forbidden Forest. I think the only place that will be safe enough is on the Quidditch pitch," Hermione said after looking over the grounds of Hogwarts.

"I don't think we should use the Quidditch pitch, Hermione. That place is like sacred to me and besides the tryouts are on the same night, I think someone would notice if we start setting up for a ritual in the middle of that, don't you?" Harry said forcefully.

Hermione frowned at Harry's attitude and picked up her books with a decidedly put out manner. "Well, fine, just forget about it. We don't have many options on where to have the ritual and if the pitch is more important to you then you don't need to waste my time."

"Hermione, wait, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. We can use the Quidditch pitch if that is the best place to have the ritual, but let me at least try to find a better place before we definitely decide to use that," Harry pleaded.

"Alright, Harry. If you can find a better place by Thursday night, we don't have to use the Quidditch pitch," Hermione relented as she sat back down.

Harry smiled at her but in his head he was determined to find a better place than the pitch. He didn't want anything to touch the one place that he felt free.

The next few days ran Harry ragged. Every moment that he wasn't in class or detention he was running outside and looking at the grounds from different vantage points. He was barely on time for his lessons due to taking the long way if that meant going through a courtyard or a good window. Potions and Defence against the Dark Arts were still as horrible as the first lesson he'd had in them.

Harry finally had an epiphany on the third day he was looking. He quickly ran to the site and started to look around to see if his idea would pan out making him late for Transfiguration. Professor McGonagall frowned as he entered late but didn't give him detention, which Harry figured was due to him already having detention for the whole week with Umbridge.

"Where were you, Harry?" Hermione hissed at him when he settled down in his chair.

"I was finding us the perfect spot for us to perform you know what," Harry whispered excitedly. Harry felt like things were looking better now that he had found a spot that wasn't the Quidditch pitch.

Hermione eyed Harry for a moment before replying in a hushed tone, "Where?"

"Miss Granger and Mr Potter! Are you finished with your conversation or should we wait for a bit longer?" Professor McGonagall called out to them making them blush red as they realized that the rest of the class was staring at them.

"Sorry, Professor," Hermione and Harry said at the same time. Harry gave Hermione a look that said that he would tell her later.

Later, however, never came as Ron started talking to them right after class. Harry's detention and Hermione having to both patrol as a Prefect and work on the potion made it impossible for Harry to have the necessary time to have a private conversation with her. Harry was only able to tell Hermione that he would meet them around 9:30pm in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom on Friday after his detention. Harry managed to slip a note into Draco's robe with the same information during Potions, which resulted in ten points being taken from Gryffindor.

When Friday came, Harry was starting to get nervous about the whole thing. _What if Malfoy decided to betray them and tell Umbridge? What if the ritual did something besides what Hermione said it was going to do? Can I really protect Malfoy better than the adults who have loads of experience?_ Harry thought to himself. Harry was thinking about backing out until he had chance encounter with Umbridge and Luna.

Harry came upon the scene accidentally. Umbridge had apparently cornered Luna in the hallway because of a remark she must have made in class.

"You silly little girl, you have no idea about how the world is run. I am trying to help you understand that all those things that you seem to like are nothing but disgusting creatures that shouldn't be allowed to roam free," Umbridge said in her high pitched voice.

"They are not disgusting," Luna retorted strongly, "and of course they should roam free. It is horrible to see them curtailed. I will read and learn about them as I please, thank you very much."

Umbridge's face contorted into a mask of anger. "You shouldn't defy me, you stupid little brat. I am going to control this school before long. You and your fantasies have no place in my school and if you are not careful I might put you in the dirt with your precious creatures." Umbridge said, smiling triumphantly before she turned and marched down the corridor.

Harry saw that Luna was trembling and quickly went to her side. "It's going to be alright, Luna. I am so sorry for not saying something. She had no right to say things like that to you."

Luna quietly wiped away the tears that fell down her cheeks as she replied, "Thank you, Harry but it is not alright. She scares me and what she was saying about her taking over the school terrifies me. She is already destroying the year's learning by refusing to teach us properly. How much worse can it get?"

"Why don't you tell Professor Flitwick? I am sure he would help you..." Harry's voice trailed off as Luna shook her head.

"A group of us have already talked to Professor Flitwick about her behaviour," Luna said as she shook her head sadly, "all he said was to keep our heads down. I don't want to keep my head down. Is that really the only thing we can do when dealing with Umbridge?"

Harry tried to comfort her but he couldn't come up with a good answer for Luna. Her question reaffirmed his belief that the adults were acting powerless to help them. With that in mind, Harry strengthened his resolve to do everything in his power to help.

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Please leave a review! I really really like them! ^_^


	7. Chapter 7

Don't own, don't make money off of, and please don't sue. Thank you very much to MrsBates93 for being my Beta. All the mistakes are mine. Thank you for all the reviewers and people who are following this story! I really appreciate it!

* * *

Harry was running as fast as he could, hoping not to bump into anyone. Umbridge had kept him longer than usual saying that she had to make sure his lines were done neatly and not just scribbled in a rush. _Not that a messy page would hurt any less_, Harry thought. It was almost past 9:30 PM and he knew that Hermione and Malfoy wouldn't be impressed if he was late. Besides they needed to time to get to the ritual site and if they didn't leave by 9:45 PM they would miss their deadline of midnight. He was just pushing the door open to the bathroom when he had to duck a spell which flew past him.

"This is a girl's bathroom, Malfoy! Get out now before I hex you worst!" Harry could hear Hermione yell at Malfoy.

Harry walked further into the bathroom and took in the scene before him. Hermione had her wand pointed at a wide-eyed Draco who was holding his sides trying not to laugh.

"What is going on here?" Harry asked in wonder.

"Your girlfriend, here, decided to attack me without provocation." Draco said between gasps of laughing fits.

"I was trying to defend myself," Hermione replied to Harry's silent question. "Guys shouldn't come into the girl's bathroom. Thank you, Harry for coming in to make sure I was alright but as you can see I'm fine." Hermione made an odd shooing motion to Harry and Harry couldn't figure out what Hermione was talking about.

"I can see that you are alright, Hermione, but why did you attack Malfoy for coming into the bathroom considering we decided to meet him here?" Harry asked while relieving Draco of the tickling hex Hermione had placed on him.

Hermione's mouth dropped open and she sputtered, "Decided to meet HIM here? What are you talking about Harry? We are supposed to meet Ron here, aren't we?"

"Ron? Why would we meet Ron here?" Harry asked.

"Well, because of the, well, you know. You said you wanted to make sure where our loyalties lied and after the summer I felt horrible but it was your choice to make us go through some kind of test," Hermione stammered. "I mean, I would do anything for you to trust us fully again," Hermione finished.

"Hermione, I have always trusted you to have my back. This summer sucked and I was angry but I would never make you go through all this. I was talking about Malfoy here when I said I needed to make sure that he could be trusted." Harry said

"Ha ha, this couldn't be any funnier. Here I was, angry at you for telling Granger and apparently you never did. That really is a funny story but can we get this show on the road. The night is wasting away," Draco said when he caught his breath.

"You don't have to be a part of this Hermione if you don't want to be," Harry told Hermione while ignoring Draco's attempt at hurrying them.

Hermione looked at Harry for a bit and then looked at Draco. "Of course I want to be part of this, Harry. I am assuming now that Malfoy doesn't want to be a Death Eater and came to you for help?" Hermione asked.

"Ding ding ding! You are right again, Granger. Now, seriously could we get going?" Draco said impatiently.

Harry rolled his eyes at Draco and went over to the stall that Moaning Myrtle usually inhabited. Draco and Hermione watched as Harry ran his hand against the back of the stall and stopped at a small portion at the back corner.

"Do you know how I found a perfect spot for the ritual, Hermione? Well, I found it when thinking about all the hidden spots in the castle and remembered how well the Chamber of Secrets was hidden. That is when I got the idea." Harry said proudly. "The Chamber of Secrets basically held a giant snake and it had to have another way out because snakes need sunlight to bathe in. I starting exploring the Chamber and found both a way out and a better way into it than flying down the snake hole," Harry continued before saying "open" in Parseltongue.

The whole wall behind the toilet slowly opened to reveal a passageway.

Harry turned around and beamed at Hermione and Draco, both of whom were staring with their mouths open.

"Umm, is it really safe, Harry?" Hermione asked timidly.

"Of course it's safe! When have I ever led you to a place that wasn't safe?" Harry said with a cheeky smile.

Hermione just raised an eyebrow at Harry and then smiled brightly at him. "Right, Harry, you have never led me on any adventure where I was not safe, how silly of me to forget!"

"I haven't gotten you expelled yet, which of course is worse than dying. So why are you worried?" Harry teased.

Hermione laughed and went to join him at the entrance. Hermione lit her wand and cautiously walked into the passage way. Harry then turned to Draco who was still standing in the middle of the bathroom looking pale.

"So, are you coming?" Harry asked with all the mirth of the last few moments leaving his voice.

Draco just nodded and followed Hermione into the shadowy passage way. Harry quickly shut the entrance behind them and went to the front to lead them through the Chamber of Secrets.

The three of them walked in silence as Harry led them through the many passages. Each time they came across an intersection, Harry would look at the walls till he found the marker that he had placed earlier in the day. They emerged from the passage into a large open clearing. As they looked around they could see nothing but dense forest around the clearing.

"Are we in the Forbidden Forest, Harry?" Hermione asked in a hushed voice.

"I think so; I really didn't want to venture too far into the woods knowing what occupies the forest so I don't know for sure," Harry replied in the same hushed voice.

"Do I even want to know what exactly occupies the forest that has you so nervous?" Draco asked.

"Acromantula colony," Harry replied.

"Nope, I definitely did not want to know that we might be in a forest that hosts a colony of Acromantula. Shall we do this quickly so we can get out of here?" Draco said while nervously looking around the forest like it was going to suddenly explode with the spiders.

"Scared, Malfoy?" Harry teased.

Draco turned to Harry, smiled at the familiar line and replied, "You wish, Potter."

Hermione rolled her eyes at the antics of the boys and started to set up for the ritual. Hermione quickly set the boys to work on the runes while she set up the cauldron with the potion and positioned everything that they would need. When the boys had finished carving out the runes in the ground they met with Hermione at the cauldron.

She handed them each a ceremonial knife and held one in her hand. With one swift down stroke they each cut their dominant wand hand which they then held over the cauldron, allowing three drops of blood to fall into the potion. The potion hissed and changed from a cloudy mud colour to a completely clear one.

Finally they were ready to start.

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Please review! I love reviews! They taste like strawberries...


	8. Chapter 8

Don't own, don't make money off of, and please don't sue. Thank you very much to MrsBates93 for being my Beta. All the mistakes are mine. Thank you for all the reviewers and people who are following this story! Finally the ritual…took me long enough! ^_^

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Harry went first. He picked up the ladle and drank three mouthfuls of the potion from the cauldron before following the rune path clockwise to the north side of the circle. Harry didn't really know why but that was where he felt like he should stop. He watched as Hermione took her final sip of the potion and made her way to the east side of the circle. Harry felt something, although he couldn't describe it, when Draco finished the potion off and made his way to the west side of the circle.

They then simultaneously placed their wands down in front of them, the tips facing themselves. Harry raised his wand hand skyward and felt the magic of the ritual come to life as Hermione and Draco copied his movements.

"Exaudi nos votum!" Their voices rang out together.

"Donec venenatis iure gentis et sanguinis." The runes started to glow and magic rippled in the air.

"Vovemus tueri invicem, sicut et nos caveamus." Harry felt his magic responding.

"Lupum se sicut accepimus audiam vocem intus lupus." Harry felt the potion sear through his veins.

"Sciatis quod volumus esse molestie genere esse velint." A magical wind whipped through the clearing as the runes glowed to impossibly bright.

"Sic fiat!" They finished with their voices barely heard over the wind in the circle.

When the last word left their mouth, everything stopped. The wind that had been whipping around in the circle disappeared. The runes that were carved into the ground and glowing with such power were no longer there. It looked like it was the end of the ritual but Harry felt something that made him convinced that the magic was just holding its breath.

Harry was finally considering trying to move when he felt it, magic, gathering at the centre of the circle. Harry watched as the magic came to life. It felt to him like warm electricity, and he saw reds, oranges, and yellows swirling in the circle, trying to find a way out. It hummed against his skin, almost painful, but not enough to make him move. Harry looked over to his companions and saw to his amazement that Hermione was glowing with the same colours. She looked alive, for lack of a better word, filled to the brim with magic. Harry figured this must be her magic and almost laughed at how appropriate it was that Hermione's magic brought to life would be warm fire-like electricity.

The magic continued to swirl and as it couldn't find a way out it started to condense into a ball. The ball of Hermione's magic glowed fiercely and Harry could barely look at it. Suddenly the ball exploded outward and a cream coloured wolf stood in the centre of the circle looking back and forth between Harry and Draco in defiance. The wolf's gaze finally settled on Draco, and Harry glanced over to find that Draco was slowly glowing.

Draco's magic came as a fog, twisting and turning around the circle. It felt cold and clammy against his skin as he saw blue and grey. The magic again pulsated against Harry's skin, almost to the point of pain but not quite there. Draco looked more like an ice prince than ever before. He was glowing with his magic and the white of his hair blew around his face. Again, the magic tried to find a way out of the circle. It pushed against Harry but Harry didn't move. Harry smiled and looked up in time to see Hermione's magic trying to fight off Draco's, wiping the smile off his face.

Hermione's wolf was growling at the fog trying to snap at it but it was a losing battle. Draco's fog surrounded the wolf and followed a trail, which Harry hadn't seen until then, to Hermione. Hermione looked to be desperately trying to keep the invading magic away from her but the fog wouldn't let up. Draco's magic engulfed Hermione and Harry had to stop himself from not going to her rescue.

A moment later, Hermione emerged from the fog, not looking beaten, but revitalized. Hermione's wolf came out of the fog next to her and the wolf was yipping and dancing in place, though Harry couldn't hear any sound. Draco's magic then rapidly condensed and blew apart to reveal a grey wolf. The Draco's grey wolf met Hermione's cream coloured wolf in the centre of the circle and Harry watched amazed as Draco's wolf nuzzled Hermione's wolf affectionately. The wolves started playing with each other and Harry glanced up to see the shocked, pale expressions on both Draco's and Hermione's faces.

When they had registered that Harry was watching them, they both turned expectantly to Harry. Harry was excited to see what his magic would look like. A moment passed, and then another. Harry couldn't feel anything. The scorching of his veins from the potion had left, and he couldn't feel Hermione's or Draco's magic against his skin, Harry really wasn't feeling anything. Harry looked up to see Hermione frown and Draco's curious look and Harry started to worry. Where was his magic? Did he have to call to it by using a spell or something?

Harry's magic didn't creep up, it didn't swirl or twist and turn, it wasn't there one moment and the next it swallowed everything up in its darkness. It was like Harry could see one moment and the next he was blind. Harry's magic was complete darkness. It disoriented Harry to the point that there was no sky, no ground, and no woods. Harry felt completely free as he sometimes felt in the sky when he was flying. He felt the darkness and was exhilarated by the rush of energy that he felt. His magic didn't stop at the boundaries of the circle; it fanned out as far as he wanted it to. Harry's magic didn't fight with Draco's or Hermione's; it swallowed both their wolves and themselves with barely a pause. Harry laughed and was enjoying the feeling of his magic being unleashed that it took a moment for him to realize that there wasn't anyone in the clearing that could control his magic except for himself. Harry was suddenly frightened at the thought of his magic wildly going out of control.

Harry's first thought on how to control his magic was to remember that his feet were on the ground. It took Harry a moment but remembering his feet were on the ground helped him pull his magic back inside of him enough to see the outline of the forest, and then the circle. He then concentrated on locating Draco and Hermione within the circle. Harry started to panic when he couldn't find them at first. He took a few deep breaths and tried again. Harry finally located them and almost laughed in relief. They weren't drowning as he thought they might have been, instead they were playing in the current that his magic produced. Harry realized that the ritual was meant to tie their magic together and it had definitely done that. He could see Draco's and Hermione's magic as well as his own in both of them and could feel theirs in him.

Harry pulled more of his magic back into him making sure that Hermione and Draco had a chance to realize that the currents were stopping. Their wolves watched him with an impatient gleam in their eyes as Draco and Hermione once again watched Harry. Harry's magic didn't seem to want to be condensed any further and Harry started to sweat with the struggle he was having with his own magic. Harry finally managed to condense the magic into a ball like the others and felt it form itself into a black wolf.

As soon as Harry's wolf was free it let out a long cheerful howl of celebration. Hermione's wolf and Draco's wolf followed suit and Harry felt in his soul that he was alpha of this pack. The realization of Harry's wolf being the alpha of the pack was soon followed by a notion that punched each of them in the gut. They were each other's mate!

The realization that both Draco and Hermione was Harry's mate as well as each other's made Harry's jaw drop and confusion was evident in his eyes. _What does that mean_ _for us now_? Harry thought to himself.

Harry didn't have a lot of time to contemplate this turn of events because after the wolves had finished howling they turned as one towards their corresponding person. As soon as they turned they rushed and leaped towards their person. Harry had only a moment to throw his hands up to protect himself when he felt something pass through him. He opened his eyes to realize that the wolves made of their power were gone and that they must have leap into them when he felt his body twist.

Harry felt his body changing and his clothes becoming restrictive. Harry tried everything he could think of to try and stop the change but it was of no use. Harry raised his head a moment later to see two wolves looking back at him, each with a pair of clothes on. Hermione whimpered, at least Harry assumed it was Hermione since the wolf was similar to the wolf Hermione's magic had created. Draco growled at her making Harry's lips curl up and growl himself. The sound of both growls caught them by surprise and stopped them from making any other sounds.

Draco sat back on his haunches and looked at Harry with a "Well, what are you going to do to get us back to being human," expression. Actually, Harry realized, it wasn't just a look it was Draco's voice!

"We can talk like this!" Harry said with a yip of excitement.

"We are currently in wolf form without a way to change back and you are excited that we can communicate. What a simple mind you have," Draco drawled out.

Harry snarled and started to make a menacing move toward Draco when Hermione's voice rang out.

"Isn't it better that we can communicate than being completely silent?" Hermione said defending Harry with a small snarl of her own. "I mean this way we can at least experiment and let each other know what works and what doesn't.

Draco rolled his eyes, even though it looked odd on a wolf, and replied, "Yes, but do we need to be so excited about it? We are having a problem after all."

Harry barely paid any attention to Draco's reply because he was delving into his magic following the feel of the change back to the beginning. Suddenly he felt his body changing again and he let out a sigh of relief as he was human again.

Draco stood straight up when Harry changed back and snarled. Hermione snarled back and made a few yipping sounds. Draco made a low grunting sound from the back of his throat.

Harry realized that he no longer could understand what Draco or Hermione were saying. Harry reached for the magic again and once he touched it he felt himself change into a wolf once more.

"You can change back by following your magic back to the centre," Harry said breathlessly as the change was draining his energy.

Hermione nodded immediately and shut her eyes to concentrate. Draco eyed him for a moment longer before following suit. Harry waited until they both were human again before changing back himself.

When Harry straightened up from changing the whole clearing swam before his eyes. He suddenly felt drained of energy. Harry looked at Hermione and Draco and realized that they looked exhausted too. Harry made a motion to the opening of the passage way and without another word Draco stumbled towards it and left the clearing. Hermione slowly made her way to the cauldron in the center of the clearing and tried to pick it up.

"Hermione, leave it, we can come back and get it later," Harry managed to croak out.

Hermione glared at the cauldron for a moment before responding, "But, Harry, it would be dangerous for someone to find it out here. We have to take it back with us."

Harry slowly made his way to the cauldron and helped Hermione pick it up and carry it to the passageway. They both stumbled a few times and when they finally made it part way back in the passage, Harry couldn't carry it any further. He was seeing spots and he could have slept on the ground where he stood.

"Hermione, let's leave it here. No one can stumble onto it and I really don't think we can get it back to the Common Room without more help," Harry mumbled, unable to form the full words.

"Ok," Hermione agreed readily, as she wasn't faring much better.

Harry and Hermione held onto each other as they stumbled up to the Gryffindor Common room. They parted ways at the staircase just as the clock struck midnight. Harry's last thought before passing into slumber was, _what does it mean that both Hermione and Draco are my mates_?

Please review! Here is the translation for the Latin (translated by Google Translate):

*Hear our vow! We are family by the laws of magic and of blood. We vow to protect each other like we protect ourselves. We accept the wolf inside and will hear each other like the call of a wolf. Let it be known that we choose to be family and we choose to be pack. So mote it be!


	9. Chapter 9

Don't own, don't make money off of, and please don't sue. Thank you very much to MrsBates93 for being my Beta. All the mistakes are mine. Thank you for all the reviewers! I am sorry that I haven't responded in a bit but my work schedule changed. I will try to respond this round!

* * *

The next morning Harry woke up to Ron's loud voice. "Wake up, Harry or are you planning to sleep all day?" Ron practically shouted in his ear as he continued, "I cannot believe that you couldn't get out of detention to come to the tryouts. Luckily for you, I was there and do I have news for you!"

Harry groaned and tried to roll back over but Ron was persistent.

"I tried out and guess what! I am going to be Keeper this season. Angela said that even though you missed the tryouts you can still be Seeker as long as you make it to the practices and don't get any more detentions. Ginny also made the team by becoming the third Chaser and of course Fred and George are the Beaters. We are going to have an awesome team this year. I think we have a chance at going undefeated!"

Ron continued on talking about Quidditch while all Harry wanted to do was sleep the day away. Harry felt like he had been hit with a Bludger while working all day in Petunia's garden. He didn't particularly care about what happened in the tryouts and Ron was starting to get on his nerves.

Harry interrupted Ron's play by play descriptions of the tryouts by saying, "Ron, mate, that's great about the tryouts but if you don't mind I really just want to sleep for a bit longer."

"It is already noon, Harry!" Ron exclaimed. "Are you feeling alright?" Ron asked due to the level of exhaustion in Harry's voice and the fact that Harry didn't want to hear about all the details of the night before.

Harry considered telling Ron how he actually felt but then he figured Ron would either ask why he felt like he did or send for Madame Pomfrey and Harry really didn't want to spend any more time in the hospital wing than he had in the last few years.

"I feel ok, I think it's just the stress of the week catching up on me," Harry said quickly. Ron agreed that the week was lousy and it could make 'any bloke wanting to sleep in'. Harry was glad that Ron really wasn't that observant and that he could be distracted very easily. Harry slowly rolled out of bed and made it to the bathroom without Ron seeing how unsteady he really felt.

Harry undressed and slipped into the shower. While the water dripped down on him, he contemplated why he felt so bad. He knew that the ritual took some magic but he didn't expect to be laid out like he was. Harry thought about how his magic had almost gotten out of control and how that might have something to do with the drag he felt. He was going to have to ask Hermione if she felt the same or if it was just him. As soon as Harry thought about Hermione something in him pulled hard. He needed to see her now. The urge to see Hermione was so strong that Harry was out of the shower before he realized it.

_Whoa_, Harry thought, _why do I need to see Hermione right now_? Harry struggled to get himself back into the shower to finish washing. He decided that he had better finish his morning ritual sooner rather than later and he started to feel another pull. This pull, however, was toward Draco. Harry felt the need to see, talk, and touch them with such force that he was nearly going crazy.

The force of the need made Harry finish getting dressed in record time. It was ironic in Harry's mind that a few minutes ago he didn't want to leave his bed because of lack of energy and now he was rushing around with energy to spare as long as it was toward seeing Hermione and Draco.

Ron didn't seem to notice Harry's frantic rushing around and started to tell Harry more about Quidditch. Harry didn't listen to Ron's ramblings and instead made it down to the stairs taking them two at a time. Luckily for Harry, Hermione was right on the bottom step, seemingly waiting for him.

As soon as Hermione caught sight of Harry her face broke out into a smile that was tinged with what looked to be relief.

"Harry! I am so happy you have finally decided to wake up. I was starting to worry about you." Hermione said in a rush, trying to be nonchalant.

"Hermione," Harry breathed out with relief as some of the driving force left him though some of the pull was still around as Draco wasn't there. Harry suspected that the pull wouldn't completely disappear until the three of them were together. Harry just stood and stared at Hermione revelling in the sense of relief he felt in her company until Ron's snicker broke his trance like state.

"Hi," Harry said belatedly.

Hermione laughed and Ron snorted at Harry's action. "Geez, Harry what is up with you this morning? First, you don't want to get up. Second, you weren't listening to me recount the tryouts, and now you're looking at Hermione, here, like she is a glass of water and you have been in a desert for a year." Ron teased as both Harry and Hermione blushed.

Harry was abashed about his actions and was starting to stutter something of a reason out when Hermione took pity on him and said, "Really, Ron, you might be acting a little off if you were the target of Umbridge's appalling plan to stop all learning at this school and having a psycho-killer invade your dreams occasionally."

Ron laughed "Sorry, mate, I forgot about that."

"It's ok, I'm sorry I was a little off this morning," Harry said, readily accepting the apology. "Should we go down to the Great Hall and see what they are serving for lunch as I have most obviously missed breakfast?"

Ron and Hermione agreed to this course of action. Harry was hungry but was hoping that Draco would be there and the pull that he was still feeling would release. A quick glance at Hermione and he could see that she felt the same. She took his hand on the way down and Harry was grateful for the support that she always gave him. Harry was a little surprised on how wonderful it felt with Hermione's hand holding his. His other hand itched to have someone else hold it.

Luck was on Harry's side that morning as Draco was just entering the Great Hall when Harry, Hermione and Ron arrived. Harry immediately sought to catch Draco's eye and found that Draco was doing the same although trying to appear as if he wasn't.

"I must have the worst luck in the world. Not only did I not sleep well but I have to see all of your ugly faces," Draco sneered at them.

Harry hid a smile as even though Draco was insulting them as usual he also seemed to be trying to get close enough to touch them without raising suspicion.

"Well, your face isn't great either, Malfoy. Why don't you just leave? Everyone would be much happier," Ron retorted.

A look that Harry didn't quite catch shadowed Draco's face as he listened to Ron's attempts at a comeback. Then, Harry saw that Draco had caught sight of Harry and Hermione holding hands and Harry could see what looked to be pure envy cross Draco's face.

"I think you are mistaken, Weasel, about the popularity levels of who you choose to hang out with. I am a member of a respectable family and you are hanging out with someone that The Prophet calls a fraud and liar," Draco replied smoothly. Draco's eyes bore into Harry's then as he continued, "Even the Ministry thinks that Potter is a misguided little boy who might be dangerous if his unsubstantiated delusions are to be believed."

Ron turned red at Draco's response as Harry completely stilled and Hermione's eyes narrowed to slits.

"I believe Harry, and you know that Voldemort is back so shove off, Malfoy," Hermione hissed as she brushed past Draco to enter the Great Hall and grab a seat pulling Ron with her.

Harry went to brush past Draco as well, a little hurt by the venom in which Draco had delivered his parting insult, when Draco grabbed his arm.

"Meet me after lunch at Moaning Myrtle's bathroom and bring Granger," Draco demanded. Harry was about to yank his arm back and follow Hermione when Draco added, "Please."

There was a frantic, odd look in Draco's eyes so Harry nodded and Draco released his arm. Harry glanced around and realized that no one had seen the interaction except for Hermione who had looked back just to make sure that Harry was coming.

Lunch passed uneventfully though Hermione kept shooting Harry looks every so often because Harry couldn't keep still. Harry felt the pull that he had felt earlier becoming more and more demanding. Even holding Hermione's hand didn't assuage it enough for Harry to calmly sit through the conversation at lunch. When Ron and Hermione had finished eating and it was time to leave, Harry struggled to find a reason to ditch Ron when Hermione saved the day.

"Hey, Harry, remember when you promised to help me with that research project on the effects of lycanthropy? I was thinking of starting it today, you're still going to help me, right?" Hermione asked, without a hint of deception.

"Oh man, Hermione! Harry doesn't want to do research today; he has had a bad week. Let us do something fun like playing Wizard chess outside!" Ron replied for Harry. Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron's behaviour behind his back and Harry had to stop himself from smirking.

"Ron, I did promise Hermione, but you can help too!" Harry said contritely.

Ron shook his head so fast that Harry was sure that the freckles were going to fly off his face.

"There is no way am I spending more time doing research than I have to. I hope she lets you off early and if she does come find me. I will be outside." Ron said quickly not noticing Hermione's semi-hurt expression.

As Harry and Hermione left the Great Hall and made their way to meet Draco, Hermione started to rant about Ron.

"That little, annoying, thick boy, he gets me so mad at times! I really would like to tear him a new one when he goes on about how I hold you hostage."

At Harry's small gesture, Hermione continued, "I know that we were needing to ditch Ron, which by the way I do feel bad about, and I did choose the way to lose him but would it kill him to want to spend some time with us at the library and not doing whatever he wants to do all the time."

Hermione paused for a second as a thought passed through her mind and then she said in a small voice, "Am I really that horrible in wanting my friends to spend some time in the library and helping with research projects?"

"Hermione, I think the way you got rid of Ron was perfect," Harry quickly said, "Ron isn't in our hair and his isn't feeling left out either. And just for your information, even if you did have a large research project and wanted my help, I would feel proud that you wanted or needed my help in the first place. I like hanging out and not working but I also do find pleasure in reading and learning new things."

Hermione smiled gratefully and gave Harry a quick hug as they made their way past the doors of the library and down to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

Harry held the door open for Hermione and as they both entered the bathroom they were met by a wildly pacing Draco.

"What took you so long?" Draco blurted out as soon as they stepped inside and locked the door behind them so that they wouldn't be interrupted.

Harry and Hermione shared a surprised look, though Harry had an inkling about what was agitating Draco. Harry crossed the room and grabbed Draco's hand. The moment their skin touched, Draco immediately calmed down some and stopped the frantic pacing.

"Better?" Harry asked.

"Much." Draco replied "Now, what in the bloody hell is going on? I woke up this morning with a need to see the both of you so badly that I almost went up to see if I could find the Gryffindor Common Room. I was so relieved to see you in the Great Hall and then mad as hell that you were both calm and holding each other's hand, which is why I lashed out. I am sorry by the way for the cruel words but seeing both of you was the last straw."

Hermione shifted as she listened to Draco's explanation and slowly came up to Harry's other side and took his hand and then reached out for Draco's. Draco watched her and when she reached for his hand he didn't pull away like Harry thought he might but let her wrap her hand around his.

Harry felt relief as if he didn't realize the strain of the pulling sensation was having on him. Harry relaxed into the feeling and felt their magic rising and falling around their joined arms. Harry closed his eyes and tilted his head back enjoying the sensations when Hermione's voice pulled him out of the trance like state he was heading toward.

"I think the ritual might have done a few things to us that I hadn't planned on." Hermione said as she pulled her hand away breaking the wonderful feeling that Harry was experiencing.

"Did you both feel it when the ritual tied us together as mates instead of just pack members?" Hermione asked. When both of them nodded their agreement, she continued, "Well, I think that might be the reason we suddenly feel a need to be with one another. We didn't acknowledge that we might be mates and now our magic is pushing us together into that state of being."

Hermione held up her hands as Draco tried to say something, "I think I can fix this and change it so we don't have this feeling anymore but it probably needs to be done at the full moon, which won't occur again for another month," Hermione concluded.

Harry and Draco shared a look but Harry couldn't decipher what was going through Draco's mind.

"So what do we do while we still have this feeling that is pushing us together?" Harry asked while rubbing his eyes at the mess all of this was beginning to be.

"It's obvious, Potter, we will just have to keep meeting each other to take the edge off," Draco stated while rolling his eyes.

"Malfoy, is right, Harry. We have all felt the need the pull creates in us and it could make us literally go crazy so we will have to meet with each other periodically in order to keep it at bay," Hermione sighed.

"Ok, but how do we keep meeting with each other without raising the suspicion of people who watch us." Harry retorted to both Draco's eye roll and Hermione's sigh. "I mean, Hermione and I can just act like normal or just claim to be dating for that period of time, but what about you, Malfoy? How are we going to meet without having to resort to threating each other?"

"I can get Hermione and me on the same prefect schedule, so that shouldn't be a problem. I could just give you detention with me, Potter." Draco smirked but continued on when Harry glared at him. "Ok, no detention, it was just an idea. Harry, you and I could bump into each other while we pretend to threaten each other and we can all meet here once or twice a week to get the full relaxation. What do you think of that?" Draco finally finished.

"That would work for me," Hermione slowly said as she processed the information into her already full schedule.

"We can try that and see how things go. We should have a way to contact each other in case one of us feels the pull and needs to be calmed down. I mean it wouldn't do for 'the master of control' here to frantically pace in a classroom until we can get together." Harry smirked as Draco sputtered at Harry's jab.

"I will think of something," Hermione said, "and will let you both know. We should leave now before someone starts looking for any of us."

Draco and Harry agreed and the three of them left the bathroom. Harry and Hermione headed toward the library to give credit to the lie that they were working there and Draco headed off to find his posse. Harry looked over his shoulder one last time to see Draco do the same and give a smirk and a wave before turning the corner.

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Reviews smell like lilacs on the wind! I love lilacs! Please Review!


	10. Chapter 10

Don't own, don't make money off of, and please don't sue. Thank you very much to MrsBates93 for being my Beta. All the mistakes are mine. Thank you so much for the reviews!

* * *

The ritual brought both helpful and not so helpful changes to each of their lives.

Almost immediately the three of them noticed how much more power they had at their disposal. Hermione found out by accidentally sending a decoration that she was trying to float to the ceiling with so much force that it broke the stone as well as the decoration. Harry figured out that although the power boost was helpful it did take some time to control and they spent some time doing normal spells and adjusting the power level until it was normal.

They also started to notice that they were aware of where the others were without having to look. Harry could close his eyes and track Draco pacing his dorm room. This had the potential to be very helpful and Harry acknowledged that but it was also a constant buzz in the back of his head.

The one major change was their need for contact. If they did not have contact with each other within a twenty-four hour period their magic started to flare, they started to feel sick and panic would set in. They had to plan times where they could meet individually and as a group because although Harry and Hermione could spend almost all their time together the magic still wouldn't relax its grip. Hermione repurposed some old bracelets to hold a charm that would warm when one needed a fix. Sneaking around was nothing new to Harry but not having Ron in the loop made him feel bad but both he and Hermione knew that Ron would never accept that they were helping a Malfoy.

Things at school started to change for Harry and he wanted to blame it on the ritual but not all of it was the rituals fault.

The first change was when almost everyone noticed how much closer Harry and Hermione sat together while doing homework or relaxed together and gossip started to fly around the school. The rumours weren't anything new and Harry didn't pay them any more attention than he did when they first surfaced but Hermione was taking them harder than ever before. Hermione now seemed conscious of how close she sat to Harry and thus tried to make more room between them. Harry did not like this change at all and vowed to get to the bottom of it as soon as possible.

Harry found a good chance to talk to Hermione about why she was acting oddly towards him on Tuesday night when the Common Room slowly cleared out. Harry was waiting for his chance and he was glad that Hermione didn't notice that people were getting ready for bed like she had the previous evening when she had jumped up and left before Harry could get a word in edgewise.

"Hermione, can we talk?" Harry asked quietly.

Hermione blinked a few times, before realizing that the Common Room was almost empty and looked to think about the possibility of an escape.

"Please," Harry added.

"Ok, Harry, we can talk." Hermione finally said after seeing the determination in Harry's eyes. She didn't make it easy for Harry though by starting but instead started to close her books and got ready to go up for the night.

"I think you know what I want to talk about but since it is obvious you are going to make me say it. Why are you avoiding me?" Harry asked trying to catch her eye.

"Avoiding you!" Hermione exclaimed as she quickly looked Harry in the eye. "We sit together in almost every class, we sit together during lunch. I am not avoiding you!"

"Yes, you are." Harry continued, "You now sit a little bit further away from me than you did before, you don't talk to me as much and you try not to be alone with me as much as possible. What is going on, Hermione?"

Hermione shifted uncomfortably and Harry knew he had caught her.

"I am not avoiding you, Harry," Hermione said slowly, "I just don't know how to act around you now. The ritual has bound us in such a way that we are craving each other's touch and you did say we could just tell people we are dating, but I don't want to say we are dating just because of an effect of the stupid ritual. I mean after we fix it are we just going to go back to normal and tell people that we broke up? I don't want to have to lie like that."

Harry looked at Hermione thoughtfully. He understood why she was acting so differently towards him. Harry took her hand in his, allowing for her to feel the comforting touch and not just the constant pull they felt towards one another.

"Hermione, you are my best friend. You are the person who gave me my first hug and have believed in me throughout all the insane perils that my life seems to take." Harry started slowly but gained momentum as he continued. Harry was surprised at how easy the right words came to him. "I know that the ritual has made us both feel like we have to have contact with each other but you are the only person who has ever reached for my hand before all this. It has always been comfortable to hold your hand. If you don't want to tell people that we are dating when we aren't we don't have to. It is no one's business how close we are except for ours. Does that help?"

Hermione stared at Harry for a moment before breaking out into a dazzling smile. "When did you get to be so smart?"

"Oh, I had help from this amazing witch," Harry teased.

"She is pretty awesome, isn't she," Hermione said smugly.

"I will let her know what your opinion of her is next time I see her," Harry said, winking at her.

Hermione pulled out the pillow that she was using and smacked Harry on the head. His cry of feigned outrage made her giggle out loud and Harry was happy that things with Hermione were back to normal. Harry felt closer to Hermione now more than ever.

The second thing that started to change was how Draco and Harry acted around each other. Harry's relationship with Draco didn't change much in the first week after the ritual. Their plan of bumping into each other while insulting each other tended to be awkward and unsatisfactory.

Malfoy knocked Harry's books out of his hands when they were waiting for Potions on Monday morning, letting their fingers glide over each other and saying loudly over his shoulder, "You should be more careful with your stuff, Potter."

"I don't know, Malfoy, usually people watch where they are going while walking. Something you should learn," Harry said this just as Draco almost walked into one of the gargoyles that lined the halls.

"It would also help your Quidditch game, Malfoy!" Harry called after him causing some of the other Gryffindors to start laughing.

Instead of a quick come back like Harry expected, Malfoy just shot him a look and entered the now opened Potions classroom. Ron shot Harry a questioning look at the lack of response from Malfoy and Harry just shrugged as Hermione rolled her eyes.

Later, however, when they met in a hallway they took the time to just relax.

"It was funny today in Potions, Potter," Draco drawled. "I almost laughed myself."

"I don't start things with you, Malfoy," Harry slowly replied well aware of Draco's sarcasm. "If you don't think you can handle it…"

Draco interrupted him, "I can handle your pathetic attempts to insult me, Potter. I just don't have the energy to do them justice anymore. I needed relief from this constant pull and I got it, didn't I."

They both leaned against the wall.

"And you did prevent me from actually walking into that statue, so I should be saying thank you. Though my skills as a seeker you should never doubt, I will steal the snitch right out from underneath your nose this year." Draco said with a touch of arrogance.

"I cannot wait to prove you wrong." Harry replied with a smile.

"Too bad, isn't it, that Quidditch isn't the only thing that we have to worry about," Draco said chasing the smile off of Harry's face. "Umbridge is a real piece of work and with her starting to poke her nose into the way the other classes are taught, things are looking bleak. Keep safe, Potter, for my sake."

"Keep safe, Malfoy, so I don't have to save your ass," Harry replied. Malfoy almost smiled and pushed off the wall before walking toward his next class leaving Harry to contemplate the seriousness of the Umbridge situation.

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	11. Chapter 11

Don't own, don't make money off of, and please don't sue. Thank you very much to MrsBates93 for being my Beta. All the mistakes are mine.

*This story follows Harry so watching Hermione and Draco interactions would be only if Harry sees them…if anyone wants to write the missing scenes you are welcome to do so.

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The third change that happened to Harry in the second week of classes was how he dealt with Umbridge.

After having detention the whole first week of classes and knowing the pain of the Blood Quill, Harry kept his head down as much as he could. He didn't challenge her in class, even when her remarks were pointedly made to get a reaction out of him. He didn't talk about how Voldemort was back in any public forum that she could possibly over hear. Harry didn't even complain too loudly when she gave them nothing but reading assignments. Harry didn't even think about what to do regarding the Umbridge situation until she started to monitor his other classes.

They were called 'Educational Decrees.' These decrees were authorized by the Minister of Magic himself and they kept giving more and more power over Hogwarts to Umbridge. A first the decrees didn't affect many things and they were a little silly but with subsequent ones the noose felt tighter and tighter. The worst one was 'Educational Decree' number twenty-three which promoted Umbridge to High Inquisitor. Umbridge now had the power to go into any classroom and decide whether or not the lesson was acceptable for students.

Harry felt as though Umbridge's appointment to High Inquisitor was due to her not being able to punish him directly. He continued to believe that her increased presence was due to him even though other students mentioned her watching their classes as well. By Thursday night that week the whole Gryffindor Common Room were annoyed at Umbridge interrupting their lessons not to mention her lack of teaching them anything.

Hermione and Harry had an appointment to meet with Draco at Moaning Myrtle's bathroom and were both feeling anxious to get there due to the increased pull due to them not being together for a few days. Harry was currently waiting on the couch for Hermione to get off Prefect duty for the night so that they could go when she stormed into the Common Room with Ron behind her.

"That miserable excuse for a witch," Hermione spat as soon as she sat down next to Harry, "do you know what she did?"

Harry shrugged and looked at Ron who was looking like he had when he threw up slugs in their second year. Luckily, Harry didn't need to ask as Hermione just continued ranting.

"She has effectively taken away the power of the Prefects by creating a new group of 'mature, responsible students who understand what education should be' called The Inquisitor Squad, who are supposed to monitor us Prefects!"

"Not only that, Harry, but can you guess who is the head of The Inquisitor Squad," Ron continued after Hermione stopped to take a breath. "You guessed it," even though Harry hadn't said anything, "that ferret, Malfoy."

Harry's eyes narrowed at Ron's insult and he felt his wolf was unhappy at the thought of someone speaking badly of his mate. The other half of Harry was thinking: _what the hell was Malfoy playing at? _

Ron continued to grumble over Malfoy's position on the new squad and Hermione had a look of pure concentration on her face leaving Harry to ponder this new development. All Harry really knew was that something had to change and the Professors didn't seem to be effective at creating any change.

Hermione abruptly stood up and said "Oh, look at the time! I nearly forgot about that thing we had planned. Harry, we have to go or else we are going to be late."

Harry glanced at the time and was surprised that ten minutes had gone by.

Ron didn't look up from where he was and grumbled "Have fun at the library, you two."

Harry sent a questioning look to Hermione and once they had left the Common Room she explained that she had told Ron that they were planning to go to the library again. Hermione seemed to be distracted again with whatever she had been thinking about before they left so Harry took the lead making sure that they didn't run into anyone.

Draco was already in the bathroom when they arrived and he looked relieved to see them as the pull was starting to become uncomfortable. They all took a breath feeling the wonderful release that being together gave them.

Harry took a moment to relax before narrowing his eyes at Draco and snarled out, "What the hell are you doing becoming a top member of this Inquisitor Squad?"

Draco looked stunned for a second and then snarled back, "I am keeping up appearances, Potter, so that you won't have to save me any earlier than you have to."

"The excuse that you are keeping up appearances is starting to wear thin, Malfoy," Harry growled. "It seems to me that you are enjoying the perks of playing both sides."

"You have no idea what I am going through, Potter! So don't presume to know what I am enjoying or not enjoying." Draco spat.

Harry was suddenly so angry at the whole situation. He wanted to tear out Malfoy's throat. Harry felt himself suddenly change into wolf form and dragged Malfoy with him. Harry didn't even know he could change now so long after the ritual or that he could force Malfoy to change as well. He truly did snarl at Malfoy then and snapped his teeth.

Malfoy looked stunned for a moment and had to dive to the side as Harry lunged for his throat. Harry had had enough of Malfoy's attitude and was a little relieved to find a release for the anger. Harry was about to lunge for Draco again when Hermione's voice cut through the red haze of anger he was feeling.

"Stop it Harry!" Hermione shouted at him, "This isn't his fault."

Harry paused for a moment and cocked his head to the side to listen to Hermione. Draco snarled and the fight almost started again but Hermione whirled on Draco.

"Don't you start either, Malfoy! Although it isn't your fault, you have not helped the situation," Hermione snarled. The air around her simmered but she held on to calm down and didn't change.

Harry decided he would hear Hermione out but he kept in wolf form because if he didn't like what she had to say he was determined to have it out with Malfoy.

"This whole situation which has been caused by Voldemort and the fact that the Ministry is targeting Harry because they don't want to acknowledge that he is back. We cannot fight each other just because we are frustrated by what is happening around us, we have to come up with a plan to fight back." Hermione stopped shimmering as she noticed that she had the attention of both boys.

She continued, "Umbridge's position in the school is hampering our learning. We have to be able to learn how to use magic to defend ourselves especially with the exams coming up. I think the best course of action is to find another teacher who would be willing to teach us defence. I have been hearing others in not only our class but the other classes as well talking about how they are going to learn. I have been thinking about this a lot and I think I know the perfect person to teach us defence."

Hermione beamed at Harry as she said, "Harry, I think you should teach as many students who want to learn, Defense against the Dark Arts!"

Harry met Draco's eyes as Draco snorted, before backing down immediately. Harry looked at Hermione then and thought at her, "_R-i-g-h-t, I bet that Malfoy's reaction will be the same as everyone else's."_

"Umm, well, to tell you the truth Harry, I have already talked to a few people and everyone I asked was interested." At Draco's and Harry's stunned expressions, Hermione continued, "I told them that we could meet this weekend at the Hog's Head in Hogsmeade."

Harry started to shake his head but Hermione kept talking, "Just listen Harry, we need to be taught defence and no Professor in the school is going to be able to teach us due to their fear of Umbridge and the Ministry. You have fought Voldemort and come out alive, you survived the Tri-Wizard Tournament, you have killed a Basilisk, and do I have to continue? You are talented enough that you can teach this. Please, Harry." Hermione finally stopped.

Harry stared at Hermione. How was he supposed to teach a bunch of kids magic that he barely knew himself? Yes, he had survived but not by talent, he was just lucky. Harry was amused that Hermione was the one begging him to break the school rules and start this, as she was always the one who wanted him to be more careful. The one thing that really stood out was the fact that Hermione was right that the Professors were too scared of the Ministry to do anything about the fact that Umbridge was taking over Hogwarts. Harry started thinking about how he could do this.

Harry looked at Draco then as the reasons that he decided to help Malfoy was what was going to spur him into doing this. Harry transformed back into human form and started pacing the bathroom.

"You are right, Hermione. The Ministry has overstepped its bounds in trying to silence me to the point it is putting the entire school in danger. Something had to be done. Someone has to fight back and if the Professors and other adults are too scared then it is up to us." Harry said, while he continued to pace.

Hermione's eyes widened as she realized that Harry wasn't just agreeing to teach a few students some defensive spells. Draco raised his head up and looked more interested as Harry continued to talk.

"First we would have to find a way to neutralize Umbridge at Hogwarts and then find a way to make the administration at the Ministry change their policies so that Voldemort cannot gain any more ground there. Of course the elimination of Voldemort would be the ultimate goal but that won't happen until people are willing to fight." Harry stopped and looked at the others, "Well, am I crazy or can we do this?"

Draco took the moment that Harry stopped talking to change back into human form and immediately gave his thoughts on the subject.

"Well, I'll be, Potter has finally grown a pair," Draco stated and continued after he got matching glares from Harry and Hermione. "Might I suggest a few things though, if we are going to neutralize Umbridge, teaching some students how to do a shield charm isn't going to cut it. We are going to have to completely rebel against everything she of the students that you recruit to learn defensive spells are going to be in just to learn enough to pass their O.W.L.S, some might seem ready to fight with you but they will be as frightened like their parents are and they will betray you, and finally some will be willing to follow you completely. These are the people that you will want to keep by your side. These are the people that we should do the ritual with so that they will have similar protection and more power when the time consequences come at us. What I would do is start off slow with recruiting and make it seem like teaching them for the O.W.L.S. is the ultimate goal. As you teach them and spend time with them we should be able to tell who will be loyal during this rebellion."

Hermione gaped at Draco.

"It seems like you have gave some serious thought about this," Hermione said questioningly.

Draco smirked and replied, "Well, I am a Slytherin and I do like to think about how power works, whether it is political or magical. So, yes, I have thought about how one would take over Hogwarts"

"Why doesn't that surprise me," Hermione muttered under her breath but still loud enough for everyone to hear.

Draco's smirk grew into something that looked like a genuine smile.

"Ok, so we meet the students at the Hog's Head this weekend and see what happens from there." Harry said after shaking his head.

"Hold on, I don't think Draco should be there," Hermione said at the same time as Draco stated "I don't think we should meet them at the Hog's Head."

"Why shouldn't we meet them at the Hog's Head?" Hermione said sceptically.

"No one goes to the Hog's Head and if a whole group of students go, it will be obvious that something is going on, especially if Harry is involved." Draco calmly retorted, "We need to keep a low profile until we have the power to strike."

"That sounds a lot like what Voldemort is doing," Hermione stated.

"Well, that proves how effective it is now, doesn't it," Draco shot back.

"I think Hermione's point is that we do not want to become like Voldemort, and besides he has had the whole summer to start, while we are woefully behind at this point. Especially since he would have started with The Ministry and we have to start at Hogwarts," Harry said slowly.

Draco nodded and replied, "All I am saying is that we should meet with the recruits in places that you always go to when you frequent Hogsmeade. It would attract less attention than if you and several students went to the Hog's Head."

Hermione finally conceded by saying, "Fine, I will let them know that we will be meeting in small groups around Hogsmeade at different times. I hope no one overhears what we are talking about."

"Hermione, I think we can use spells to prevent others from eavesdropping," Harry said soothingly. He continued, "I also don't think you should be visible during the initial meetings, Malfoy. A lot of people will walk away when they see you because they don't trust you which would hamper our recruitment. The other reason is that we are protecting you and it is easier to protect you while no one knows you have switched sides. However I do want you there, so I will lend you my dad's Invisibility Cloak and you can observe from under there when we meet the recruits."

Harry looked around at both of them and asked, "Are we agreed?"

Hermione and Draco stared at one another but finally both of them agreed to the plan.

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Please review! Reviews are like finally getting a new book in the mail and having the time to dive right in and read it!


	12. Chapter 12

Don't own, don't make money off of, and please don't sue. Thank you very much to MrsBates93 for being my Beta. All the mistakes are mine.

Sorry about the long wait...vacation and then my house being robbed took my time away. Lucky for me (and you) my story is on a flash drive on my keys and not on my computer, which was taken...grr. I will try to make it up to you and post again on Wednesday and then Friday.

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At lunch on Friday Hermione approached Harry to inform him of the plans for Hogsmeade.

"I have a plan for where we can go in Hogsmeade!" Hermione said excitedly as she continued, "We should hit Zonko's Joke shop first, Dominic Maestros second,Tomes and Scrolls third, Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop fourth, Honey Dukes fifth, and then end at the Three Broomsticks."

"Why are we all going to all of all those shops? I thought we could just go to Zonko's Joke shop, Honey Dukes and then the Three Broomsticks," Ron said looking confused.

"We are going to visit all of Hogsmeade because we can, Ronald," Hermione said while trying to signal with her eyes that others were listening.

Harry was amused that Ron couldn't pick up on Hermione's subtlety of why they were planning to visit quite a few shops, though he did think that going to all of those shops was overkill. However, before Ron could open his mouth to say something that would anger Hermione, Harry decided to step in.

"Sounds like a good plan, Hermione. Let's hit all the shops so that we can teach the younger students what they're missing," Harry said.

Ron still looked confused as ever as but after a moment said, "Oh right, I remember! You just told me last night about the plan, how could I have forgotten?"

Hermione rolled her eyes and sent Harry a look of exasperation. Harry smirked back feeling the exact same way. _Ron doesn't seem to grasp the importance of what we are planning_, Harry thought to himself. Ron started to talk about Quidditch with Dean Thomas who was sitting next to him. Harry frowned, _why doesn't he see that our life has changed and that we need to be prepared for war? _

For the rest of the day, Harry was a model student. He didn't rise to the bait when Umbridge continued to sprout lies about him or when Snape belittled him in class. Harry knew that he needed to be free the next day so that he had a chance at changing things.

The one problem that had even Hermione stumped was where they were going to meet to practice the spells after they formed the group. Harry, Hermione, Ron and Draco (though Ron didn't know it) made a list of possible places and had crossed each one off the list due to problems such as; too visible (Quidditch Pitch), not enough space (empty classrooms), and too hard to open (Chamber of Secrets). Harry was about to give up on the entire idea until Dobby came through with what he called the Come and Go Room. Ron and Hermione scoped out the room while on prefect rounds and declared that it was perfect.

Harry met with Draco to let him know that they would start meeting people at Zonko's Joke shop at 10am and that they would bump into each other there so that the Invisibility Cloak could be passed off.

Harry was excited and nervous for the next day which contributed to him not sleeping much and in the sleep he did get he dreamt of Voldemort.

Harry dreamt of a corridor which had a door at the end that he wanted to reach no matter what. The need to see what was beyond that door was almost possessing his very being. All he knew was that the answers that he needed was beyond that door and if he had those answers he could rule the world as he was meant to.

Harry woke in a cold sweat and instantly knew that he wasn't interested in that door and that the person who wanted to go beyond it was Voldemort. He quickly threw off the covers, got dressed and ran to send a letter with what he had seen to Sirius. After watching Hedwig fly off, Harry was disturbed about being as obsessed with the door as Voldemort was and if alerting the adults would garner anything but a 'don't you worry about it, dear'. _Of course,_ Harry thought, _it would be worst if he didn't report it and something happened that he could have prevented_. Harry slowly trudged back to the dorms to wait for Ron and Hermione to wake up and get ready to go to Hogsmeade.

The three of them left right after breakfast and Harry tried to quell his nerves all the way down there by talking nonsense with Ron about silly stuff. Hermione wasn't fooled at how he was acting and before they went into Zonko's to meet with the first group she pulled him aside after Ron went in.

"Harry, everything is going to be alright. Please don't worry," Hermione soothingly spoke in his ear.

"Of course you could always worry yourself into an early grave and take us right along with you," Draco interrupted. "How are you going to be the saviour of the Wizarding world if you can't even meet a few people that might be loyal to your cause?" Draco asked, shaking his head in mock disappointment.

Harry straightened up and glanced around noting that the three of them were alone for the moment. "Sod off, Malfoy and remember to keep your mouth shut while under this," Harry said as he handed the Invisibility Cloak to him.

Draco smirked as he took the cloak and then handed Hermione a piece of parchment. "The spells are in place on that so make sure that everyone signs it. I never thought you to be so devious; you should let that side of you out more."

Harry was confused as Hermione blushed at Draco's comment.

"What is that for?" Harry asked.

"It is a contract that states that everyone who signs this list swears to never tell Umbridge or any Professor about meeting with you and forming this group. I asked Malfoy to add a few jinx to the parchment so that if anyone betrayed the pact they would feel some consequences," Hermione said blushing harder.

"I also added that the names of the people who signed it would be invisible to everyone except those with the code, so that if the parchment got swiped by anyone it wouldn't reveal anything." Draco continued.

"Do I want to know what happens to someone if they betray the pact? Wait, never mind I don't want to know," Harry said as he added, "but I do want to know what the code is."

Draco smirked and invaded Harry's personal space to whisper in his ear making shivers go down his spine as he whispered, "The code is 'I vow to be free'. Draco stepped back and looked at his finger nails and asked in a completely bored voice, "Does that work for you?"

Harry release the breath that he didn't even know he was holding and nodded dumbly.

"Great, now let's get this show on the road," Draco said and quickly opened the door and let himself into the shop.

Hermione gave Harry a small smile. Harry smiled back and opened the door for her before going in himself.

Zonko's Joke shop was a very busy shop that morning considering it was the first Hogsmeade trip of the school year. Harry and Hermione squeezed through the crowds with Draco right on their heels to get to one of the back rows where Ron, Fred, George, Ginny, Dean Thomas, Alicia Spinnet, and Angelina Johnson were waiting. Harry noted that no one paid them any notice and that Draco's idea on how to draw less attention seemed to have worked. The meeting went rather quickly as they all knew that they wanted to sign up and have Harry teach them due to the fact that they all believed Harry about Voldemort.

Dean made the comment that he was working on convincing Seamus and hoped to get him to come to a meeting. The parchment was passed around and when a person signed, Hermione would give them a coin and demonstrated how the coin would alert them to the date and time of a meeting. Harry told them about the meeting room and how to activate it. Harry left Zonko's feeling a lot more confident about the day.

The next stop was Dominic Maestros and it wasn't as crowded as Zonko's but with the magical instruments playing themselves it was loud enough to cover the conversation. There they met with Colin and Dennis Creevey, Luca Caruso, and Alice Tolipan, who all signed the parchment.

Tomes and Scrolls didn't have any loud music or a crush of people to cover up the conversation but with a few well-placed charms they managed to meet with Michael Corner, Padma Patil, Terry Boot, Ernie Macmillan, and Hannah Abbott. Before anyone could sign the parchment, Ernie piped up and asked about Voldemort and if Harry was doing this just for the attention.

Harry held onto his temper and replied, "I have already told you the truth, but this isn't completely about the return of Voldemort. This is a rebellion against Umbridge and her method of non-teaching. If you don't want in, you know where the door is, leave."

Ernie didn't even look at the door as he grabbed the quill out of Ron's hands and signed the parchment with a flourish. Hermione beamed at Harry in approval as the others quickly signed the parchment as well.

The meetings with Zacharias Smith, Susan Bones, Justin Flinch-Fletchley at Scrivenshaft Quill Shop and Nigel Wolpert, Parvati Patil, Romilda Vane, Anthony Goldstein, Marietta Edgecombe and Cho Chang at Honeydukes went by quickly with some signing the parchment without a thought and some hesitating before finally signing quickly. Harry was glad the day was almost over with only the meeting at the Three Broomsticks left.

Neville waved them over the moment that they entered the pub. Harry saw that Neville had snagged a table a little off to the side which was a perfect location for the meeting. Neville was sitting with Luna Lovegood with seats saved for Harry and company. Harry saw that the only other table that could overhear them was filled with Katie Bell, Lee Jordan, and Lavender Brown. At Harry's questioning look at the odd grouping, Katie piped up, "We missed the meeting we were planning on attending so we thought we could just meet with you here." Harry nodded his agreement before sitting down with a thud.

"Tired, Harry? I would be too with all the nargles that hang around your head," Luna murmured his agreement that it was the nargles that had made him so tired while the others laughed uncomfortably not sure if it was a joke or not.

Harry pulled out the parchment, which looked blank, and put it on the table. Hermione then pulled out the quill that everyone had been using to sign and placed it next to the parchment. Katie, Lee and Lavender quickly signed the parchment and left to go find their friends. Neville signed his name next with a strong look that conveyed that he would be with them till the end making Harry smile. Luna looked at Hermione seemingly weighing the pros and cons of her decision before signing with little flowers surrounding her name.

Harry let out a sigh. It was almost done, just four more signatures. Harry turned to Ron waiting for him to pick up the quill.

"Thank goodness that is over! Now we can relax and enjoy the rest of this weekend," Ron said oblivious to Harry's waiting gaze.

"Ronald, there is a lot of work we need to do but first you need to sign," Hermione said patiently.

"What?! I don't need to sign it!" Ron exclaimed, "Harry trusts me."

"It is not just about Harry trusting you, it is a symbol of our unity," Hermione growled out.

At Ron's dumbfounded expression, Harry picked up the quill and handed it to Ron. "Just sign it Ron."

Ron glared at the two of them as he took the quill and scrawled his name on the parchment. Hermione just shook her head as she picked up the quill and elegantly signed her name. Harry gave her leg a comforting squeeze and went to pick up the parchment to sign his own name when it was whisked out of his hands.

"What have we here, Potter, something that you don't want your betters to see," Draco sneeringly said with Crabbe and Goyle standing behind him. Draco looked and showed the parchment to the others but of course by then it didn't have a single signature showing on it.

"What does it look like to you, Malfoy?" Harry asked while chuckling internally at Malfoy playing the bully.

Malfoy narrowed his eyes at Harry and then tried several spells that were meant to undo any normal concealing spell.

After Draco had run out of revealing spells, Hermione piped up, "Clearly, Harry, even someone as thick as Malfoy, can see that it is just a blank sheet of parchment."

"I saw you writing on it and if the parchment isn't spelled, then that quill is. Hand it over." Draco demanded as he quickly grabbed the quill off the table.

Draco proceeded to sign his name on the parchment to the amusement of those around and the deep amusement of Harry and Hermione who knew that Draco understood what he was doing.

As the ink disappeared, Draco snorted and said "Very funny, Potter, but I would watch my back if I was you. Cheap tricks like this will be all you have left and even then I can just take them away from you like I am going to take your quill."

Malfoy and his goons soon left the group. Ron and Neville were laughing so hard that tears were coming down their faces as they made fun of Malfoy and what he had unwittingly (to their knowledge) signed. Harry and Hermione enjoyed their friend's amusement but couldn't completely join in since they knew better. Luna looked on with a happy dreamy face.

Harry then grabbed another quill and signed his name with a finality that sobered them up. He raised his glass of Butterbeer and toasted, "To the start of the rebellion!"

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Please review! I like them...they will make me happier and I need cheerful thoughts.


	13. Chapter 13

Don't own, don't make money off of, and please don't sue. Thank you very much to MrsBates93 for being my Beta. All the mistakes are mine.

**Sorry to say this chapter has no romance in it, but it does serve its purpose. Please do not give up…they will get together, I promise! **

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The first meeting of the group happened early the next week. Everyone that had signed up was there. Draco was in one of the corners wearing the Invisibility Cloak again and only Harry and Hermione knew he was there. Harry was prepared to explain what he was thinking of trying to teach them when the question of what they were going to call themselves came up.

"What does it matter, what we call ourselves? The important thing here is what we are going to try and teach ourselves," Harry said in wonderment as a few of the girls were starting to bicker over the name.

"Because it does matter, Harry, it is like a morale thing," Lavender Brown said.

"She is right, Harry. Names have power, I mean just look at the terror that the name 'Death Eaters' bring to the followers of You- Know-Who," Hermione reasoned, looking gobsmacked that she agreed with something that Lavender Brown had said.

"Okay, I guess I can see your point. Names do have power so we should name ourselves something that mean something, but if we subscribe to names having power let's take away some of Voldemort's. Everyone here from this moment on should call Voldemort, either Voldemort or Tom Riddle as his real name is Thomas Marvolo Riddle Junior. In fact let's call him Tommy Boy to decrease the value of his name." Harry said with finality as he added, "anyone here who still calls Voldemort, You-Know-Who or whatever, shall be hit with a stinging jinx. Now what should we call ourselves?"

There was a gasp at the revealing of Voldemort's name and a few people were about to complain about the rule that Harry had just made on the spot but quietened down after a challenging look from Harry.

"I think we should call ourselves the 'Defence Association'" Parvati Patil said.

"We could call it the D.A for short," Padma Patil added.

"Yeah and the other name for it can be Dumbledore's Army, since that is the Minister's fear," Ginny Weasley stated.

Harry and Hermione looked at one another as their invisible friend poked them trying to get them to say no to that name. Harry shrugged and said, "Sounds good to me, so let's begin with what we are going to be trying to learn."

"We all know that knowing how to defend ourselves is going to become more important as the war moves closer or at least that it is important for the exams that are coming up if you still don't believe me when I said that Voldemort is back. I am going to cover the disarming charms, impediment jinxes, redactor curses, stunning spells, summoning charms, shield charms, the patronus charm, as well as some basic healing charms and first aid, to name a few."

"What is the Disarming Charm going to do to help us when we are fighting adults who are throwing around the Killing Curse, Harry," Cormac McLaggen asked snidely.

"I used it against Voldemort and survived." Harry said as he continued, "I don't think that these spells are that impressive but they are useful and when you are backed into a corner sometimes using a simple spell works a lot better than trying to come up with a complex one. The point I am trying to make is that I am going to try to make these spells something that will come instinctually and hopefully you will come out alive." Harry said meaningfully while meeting everyone's gaze. Most of the members looked convinced but a few of them seemed intent on not believing him. Harry sighed and moved to the centre of the room.

"If you still doubt my abilities or what I think is important to teach you, McLaggen, why don't you and I have a match? You can use any spell in your arsenal, besides the Unforgiveable Curses, and I will stick to the Disarming Charm," Harry challenged.

Cormac McLaggen smirked and confidently strode to the center to face off with Harry. "You will regret this, Potter. I have been practicing duelling since I was little," McLaggen bragged.

Harry didn't say anything; his face was a mask of concentration. After circling each other for a few minutes McLaggen shot off a curse towards Harry, Harry rolled to the right and cast three disarming spells. McLaggen managed to avoid one of them, but the other two hit him straight on. The two spells were strong enough to not only disarm McLaggen but send him flying into the wall.

"I think we also need to work on how to move during an attack, McLaggen should have been able to dodge those spells but since he wasn't prepared to move he got hit," Harry said while brushing off his pants.

"You aren't supposed to move that much while duelling, Potter," Michael Corner said trying to defend Cormac's lost.

"Who said anything about a proper duel? I challenged him to a match and I doubt that the Death Eaters or any enemy is going to adhere to rules." Harry said before adding, "I think we will have to have a simulated battle at the end so we can learn what chaos it is going to be."

"Is everyone clear on what we are going to do here? Yes, ok now let's get to work." Hermione said from the sidelines. Harry threw her and Draco a smile.

Harry proceeded to demonstrate how to properly cast the Disarming Charm on one of the training dummies the room provided and then observed each of them casting the charm on their own dummies, stopping to help when he could see something was wrong. After a good fifteen minutes of casting the charm Harry called for them to stop casting.

Harry then had them line up and work on moving. There was a lot of groaning and grumbling about this but they stopped when they realized that Harry was going to work just as hard as they were. They ran lines, they ducked and rolled and they jumped around certain objects. Harry called for them to stop after ten minutes went by and let them have a break as almost everyone was out of breath.

"Next time we meet, we need to bring water and a change of clothes," wheezed Ron as they sat down. Everyone agreed with Ron's statement and groaned at the wonderful thought that having water would be. Even Harry didn't realize how much work it was going to take and thought that having water on hand was something that he would have to figure out for everyone in the future. Hermione however brightened up.

"Aren't you a wizard, Ron? We can procure water and I think we can ask the room for glasses to drink from," Hermione said in a breathy voice. Immediately she cast Aguamenti and found a container for it. Soon everyone had some water to drink.

After the break, Harry had the group form two lines. Each person would duel the person opposite them with only the disarming charm. Harry set himself up with Hermione and they walked the lines to correct and encourage the members.

This became the routine for the meetings; they would gather, hear about the spell that they were working on, and watch Harry demonstrate it. Then they would work privately on the spell, do some physical exercise, and then duel others with the spell that they had learned in the lesson. After that they would then work privately or with partners on which ever spell they wanted to improve. Harry would team up with Hermione or whoever did the best at learning the spell and go around helping the ones who were struggling.

Harry tried to have meeting twice a week but it was hard getting everyone together and keeping Umbridge off their backs. She had somehow caught wind of students breaking the rules in regards to not actively learning Defence Against the Dark Arts and she was furious. She put up rules about not forming groups of more than three people, not being out of Common Rooms when not in class, and had her Inquisitor Squad try to bully people into squealing. Luckily for the group, Draco told Harry what to expect and they just adjusted to each new rule or regulation that she tried to implement.

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I will try to post the next chapter on Friday! See you all then!


	14. Chapter 14

Don't own, don't make money off of, and please don't sue. Thank you very much to MrsBates93 for being my Beta. All the mistakes are mine.

* * *

The next few weeks were both exhilarating and exhausting for Harry as he ran the D.A., met up with Draco, went to Quidditch practice and tried to avoid causing trouble with Umbridge. Harry relationship with Draco started to change with each meeting of the D.A. Harry, in the beginning, hadn't seen Malfoy any different. Harry still saw him as a stuck up prat that only cared about himself. Their interactions started to change when the D.A. started. When Draco was at the meeting (hiding under the cloak) he watched everything and at the end when they could finally interact, Draco pointed out weaknesses and strengths of the different students. This helped Harry tremendously to organize the group into pairs that would effectively make each student stronger.

Harry and Hermione made it a point to either meet with Draco after meetings at Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom or stay behind after the meetings to spend some time together. During the instances that they could stay behind the three of them would square off against each other in all out battles. Draco had initially started this unintentionally when he teased Harry about the Creevey brother's strange devotion to him. Harry already on edge because of a bad day took his frustration out by casting the spell that they had worked on that day straight at Draco. Draco stopped laughing immediately and barely had time to cast the counter, which they had also learned that day. Draco was furious and challenged Harry to truly fight him. What commenced was a full battle which pretty much destroyed most of the room until Hermione put to an end to it by putting both of them in a binding spell. Instead of being pissed at each other they started laughing. Hermione broke the spell in her confusion.

"You know, Malfoy, you almost had me at the end when you did that summoning spell. If you had moved your feet instead of just ducking you would have had the time to do it without me catching on," Harry said between fits of laughter.

"I Almost Had You! You could have ended it in the first two shots if you had gone for a stunner instead of a tripping spell," Draco said while trying to get his breath back.

"And we both should have remembered that Hermione was around," Harry said with a brilliant smile.

Draco returned the smile and said "That was a lot more fun than sitting and watching the others struggle with the concept of fighting.

"That is what you consider FUN!" Hermione shouted over them. Both of them stopped for a moment before grins spread across their faces.

"Yes!" They shouted back at her.

Hermione threw her hands up in the air and gathered her stuff up preparing to leave in a huff when Draco grabbed her hand and spun her around.

"I apologize, we shouldn't have done that." Draco said solemnly.

"I apologize too, Hermione," Harry quickly said as well.

Hermione slowly nodded and let herself be lead back into the room. When she placed her stuff back down and relaxed the boys continued.

"Next time, we will let you play, too," Draco continued, mock seriously.

"We will try not to leave you out ever again," Harry finished.

Hermione shrieked her annoyance at their playful mood.

Harry laughed at Hermione being all riled up but then stopped up as a thoughtful look crossed Hermione's face.

"Actually, you two might have made a good point in all this crap," Hermione started. "We will need combat experience and an all-out fight between us would sharpen our senses. Plus we could partner up sometimes so that we all have the experience of fighting two on one. Additionally we could use our bond and test our limits with that. We can even practice changing into wolves and see if that could be used in combat."

Hermione looked like she had hit a goldmine while Harry smirked and Draco gaped at Hermione finding a practical use for them fighting each other. After that, when they got together they would have a vicious fight.

Harry and Draco's relationship continued to change as the weeks went by. Their plan of bumping into each other while insulting each other tended to turn playful now even though they were both aware of who was watching them and who might observe too much. Draco tended to use spells that Harry had taught the D.A. in the previous meetings and Harry would smoothly counter it with either the counter that he had taught or the spell that he was planning on teaching in the next meeting.

Harry could also see that Hermione's relationship with Draco was changing as well. She would come back from Prefect patrols with a small smile that she tried to cover up with complaints for Ron's benefit.

Harry should have been feeling great about the progress of his plans and he was except for one thing. The pull that the ritual had created that had only been a nuisance at the beginning was now a constant pressure. Due to them working on figuring out their bond during their mock battles, Harry realized that he could exert a little control on the pressure but never fully relieve it. Even though he couldn't stop the pressure that seemed to be growing, Harry could contain it within him and let Draco and Hermione relax. Harry had thought that spending as much time as he was with both Draco and Hermione would settle the strange pull down. Instead it seemed to exacerbate it.

He tried to contain the pressure within himself as much as possible because of the toll that it had on the others. Harry reasoned that Draco shouldn't have to deal with the pressure because he was trying to hold on to a mask of a Death Eater wannabe and that mask was hard enough to hold onto as it was. He also reasoned that Hermione didn't need the pressure exerted on her because she was busy trying to figure out how to release it.

The only problem with this was Harry now needed to see them daily to prevent him from feeling like he was going insane. He wanted to touch them every time he saw them but held back. He didn't think it mattered what kind of touch, a hand shake would do, but he wasn't going to push this onto them. Harry felt like it was eating him up inside.

Hermione immediately noticed the difference in Harry's behaviour and tried to help by holding his hand, but Harry pulled away every time she reached out. Harry would have loved to hold Hermione's hand except he wanted more. He wanted more than holding hands, he wanted to stroke her arm and curl around her and he didn't think he could stop himself if he let her hold his hand.

It all came to a head one night when Harry was playing Wizarding chess with Ron. Ron had just captured Harry's queen and was teasing Harry about it when Harry exploded. Harry stood up quickly, scattering the chessboard and started shouting.

"You think it's funny, Ron! Do you really think it's funny that I cannot protect my queen better than you? Well, piss off! I am the only one who protects anyone in this whole damn school! So you can take that piece and shove it up your…"

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed stopping him in his tracks mid-rant.

Harry whirled around and looked at her with a sort of a crazed look in his eye making everyone else take a step back. Harry turned back and muttered, "Sorry," before fleeing through the portrait hole.

Hermione immediately went after him but heard in the background Seamus saying "Told you he was off his rocker," and Ron replying something like, "Shut up, you're wrong."

Harry ran to the Room of Requirement hoping to get some relief from blasting practice dummies. He didn't even turn around when he heard the door open and close assuming that it was Hermione, thus he was surprised when he heard Draco's voice coming from behind him.

"You know acting crazy in the middle of your Common Room isn't going to help you sell the 'I am not a crazy, fame seeking, prat' tale that we were working on selling to the masses." Draco drawled from behind him.

In one smooth motion Harry turned and fired a curse right at Draco. The curse bounced off a shield that Hermione cast quickly.

"Tsk, tsk, none of that now. You obviously are having a problem and we are going to figure it out." Draco continued.

Harry growled as a response. His eyes narrowed and he was barely holding back from changing.

Draco and Hermione shared a look at the erratic way Harry was acting and it almost set Harry off. They slowly went to stand on either side of Harry watching him for any signs that he was about to attack.

"Harry, please tell us what is going on. You haven't been yourself for a while and we are worried, especially after tonight," Hermione pleaded.

Harry thought briefly about attacking them but then dropped his wand and ran a hand through his hair.

"The pull has been getting stronger and I can barely handle it anymore," Harry said reluctantly.

"What are you talking about, Harry? The pull from the ritual has almost disappeared? I haven't felt it really for a while now," Hermione said.

When Harry shook his head in disagreement, Draco figured it out.

"You, bloody righteous, noble piece of shit," Draco yelled. "You have been containing it, keeping us from feeling the full effects of it, haven't you? And it has been growing, to the point that you are reduced to this, hasn't it?" Draco started pacing back and forth never losing sight of Harry while mumbling under his breath about the stupidity of Gryffindors.

Hermione gasped and asked Harry with her eyes to refute what Draco was saying. Harry couldn't and so he just didn't say or do anything except stare at the floor.

"Do you know how dangerous that could be? Why haven't you been letting me hold your hand if you were in so much pain? It would have helped wouldn't it?" Hermione asked gently. She stepped forward intent on giving Harry a hug but stopped when Harry shook his head and took a step back.

Harry laughed humourlessly. "I don't think I could have stopped at just holding your hand, Hermione. I want more."

With this statement Hermione froze and Draco's jaw dropped.

"Are you saying that you need physical contact at this point, Potter?" Draco asked slowly and carefully, his eyes staring straight at Harry's.

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Thank you everyone who reviewed! I hope that you enjoyed the chapter and will review again. ;)


	15. Chapter 15

Don't own, don't make money off of, and please don't sue. Thank you very much to MrsBates93 for being my Beta. All the mistakes are mine. Hope this was worth the wait!

* * *

Harry stared right back at Draco, weighing his words before he spoke.

"I will not let magic control me, even if it is a spell that I willingly went into, so no, I do not need physical interactions to get me through the day. The spell however is magnifying what I want. I want to hold Hermione's hand, run my hands up and down her arms, and kiss her senseless." Harry said blushing but still looking straight at Draco but not at Hermione as her face turned bright red as well.

Draco inclined his head to show that he understood what Harry meant and then as slowly as he had asked the last question he asked, "And what about me, Potter? Do you want to do those things with me as well?"

Harry didn't let himself drop his eyes from Draco's as he inclined his head to answer affirmatively. Draco didn't say a word but turned around and walked to a corner of the room.

"Don't worry, I am not about to ravage either of you, Malfoy. I am containing the ritual's pull partly because of the fact that I want it. I do not want to be with you if you are just under a spell's influence. I will not tolerate it." Harry said, without any hint of hurt at Draco's rejection though he felt it.

"Hermione, do you have any ideas on how to stop the pull?" Harry asked as he finally turned away from Draco.

Hermione seemed to wake up from a stupor and replied uneasily, "I have researched and done calculations of what could perhaps influence a change in the basic magic of our binding but I haven't found anything. The only thing I could come up with is to undo the ritual and try to find something else. I have started to brew extra potion for that effect because to undo the binding of our magic we have to start the ritual again and pull our magic individually from the bindings. The only problem with that is it might harm our magic and weaken us slightly. I am sorry Harry but undoing the ritual might be the only way to get the magical pull pushing us to become mates to stop."

Draco snorted in the corner before turning around and saying, "I never thought that I would see Granger act like a coward and yet here we are."

Harry's eyebrows rose and he looked questioningly between Draco and Hermione.

"Granger and I have been going over the ritual together during our patrols and we figured out pretty quick that there was no way to alter the ritual's effect considering she chose this ritual intending for it to be unalterable from the outside. What she is not saying is that the pull should go away if we complete the ritual." Draco said with an unusual quality to his voice.

"Complete the ritual?" Harry said with confusion, looking at Hermione to explain. When Hermione didn't offer up the expected explanation, Harry understood.

"As I said earlier, I will not make you do that. So, Hermione how long do I have to survive this until the ritual can be undone?" Harry asked.

Before Hermione could calculate and answer Harry's question, Draco asked one of his own.

"What if I don't want to undo the ritual? What if I want this? What if I want the exact same thing as you? Do I not get a say in this?" Draco asked forcefully.

Harry was startled and gaped at Draco for a moment, before glancing at Hermione who was looking at her feet like they were the most fascinating things in the world at that moment.

Harry looked at Draco and shook his head, "You do not need to prostitute yourself in exchange for my protection, Malfoy. Please don't try. Things can stay the same as they are now and you should be fine," Harry said.

"Prostitute myself! Ha! Like I would ever stoop that low, I know I do not have to prostitute myself. Haven't you wondered why I came to you for protection? I could have tried a different route, and some of them might have worked, maybe not as well, but they could have left me alive at the end. But I didn't try those avenues of protection because I wanted to be protected by you. You, Potter, not anyone else, Granger has been a bonus I must admit considering I never considered her before but none the less, I want you and her as my mates." Draco said while slowly moving forward.

Harry instinctively tensed and moved back as Draco continued to walk towards them. Draco narrowed his eyes and asked, "You still don't believe me, do you? What do I have to do to prove to you that I want you, and that it isn't the ritual forcing this?"

Harry just shook his head repeatedly. _Malfoy couldn't want him_, Harry thought, _no one really wants me_. _People either use me or target me, why, I don't know but I do know no one but my parents have ever loved me and they were probably the only people who would_. Harry was so caught up in his inner monologue that he failed to notice that Draco had backed him against the wall.

Physically trapped by Draco's arms on either side of him, Harry looked up into Draco's eyes. "Don't do this, Draco, unless you mean it because I won't hold back after this," Harry threatened in a whisper.

Draco's eyes widened at hearing Harry calling him by his first name and whispered back, "Good," before slamming his lips onto Harry's. The moment their lips touched a shock wave of energy went through them.

Harry was shocked as Draco's lips assaulted his. It wasn't a soft kiss, it was hard and demanding. Draco's body was flush against his as he was pressed against the wall. Harry closed his eyes and kissed Draco back releasing all the tension that he had been feeling over the last few weeks. Harry pushed Draco off and with a twist changed their positions till Draco's back was against the wall and Harry pressing against him. Instinctively, Harry deepened the kiss while his hands gripped Draco's shirt not letting the boy have a chance to move or end the kiss.

Eventually having to breath, Harry pulled away a little dazed. Harry looked at Draco and was pleased with himself that Draco seemed a little dazed as well. Harry felt better than he had in a long time and tentatively grinned back at Draco who was grinning like a fool until a voice cut through their moment.

"I thought you two promised that you weren't going to leave me out again?" Hermione asked.

Harry whirled around to see Hermione looking embarrassed and upset. Harry wasn't sure how to approach her or what to say when Draco replied, "We haven't left you out, we are just waiting for you to come over here and claim your mates."

Harry blushed bright red at Draco's statement and stammered out, "I'm sorry, Hermione, for umm, saying those things and making you feel uncomfortable. I don't want you to feel pressured into anything. If you want to, we can still undo the ritual and then redo it without you."

Hermione bit her lip and looked down at her feet again not saying anything. Harry was confused at her reaction and was trying to figure out a course of action when Draco pushed him toward her.

"She wants this, that is why she isn't saying anything, Potter," Draco stated smugly. "Why don't you go and snog her senseless like you both want to?

"Call me Potter again and I will make you regret it, Draco," Harry replied.

"Fine, Harry, is that better? Go and claim her, then bring her back here so that I can have a taste." Draco said with a wolfish grin.

Harry growled low in his throat at Draco's perceived demand but relented when Draco motioned to Hermione and dropped his eyes. Harry let himself follow the motion and fully looked at Hermione. She was standing by herself in the middle of the room, looking lost and holding herself together with her arms wrapped tightly around herself.

Harry's first thought was that he should go and comfort her, but when he took a step towards her, Draco's admission reverberated in his mind. Draco said that he wanted him as a mate and that Hermione was being a coward when she hadn't told him about finishing the ritual. Why would Hermione not want to tell him that? If it was just a case of how to fix a problem, Harry knew that Hermione would have no problem telling him that to his face. So why hadn't Hermione told him?

Harry thought about all his interactions with Hermione and how confident she normally was. In fact the only time she seemed shy was when it was something that was personal. She didn't have a high opinion of herself in social situations! Harry took that thought and rolled it around in his head. If Hermione truly wanted him like Draco seemed to have implied she would act shy considering she probably didn't think she would stand a chance. Harry reasoned that Draco might be right and that the only way to test this hypothesis would be to act and not try to talk it out.

Harry walked over to Hermione acting a lot more confident than he felt. Hermione still didn't look up when he was standing right in front of her so Harry reached out and gently tilted her head up to make her look at him.

"I meant what I said, Hermione, about wanting you," Harry said softly.

Hermione took a breath, squared her shoulders and looked up for the first time to meet Harry's eyes and he kissed her. Harry had the feeling that she was going to say something that would distract them from the current situation so he decided that he would just go for it and hope that he didn't get decked and so he kissed her.

Harry's second kiss of the evening was nothing like the first. The kiss with Hermione was soft and strong but slow compared to his kiss with Draco which was hard and demanding. Harry didn't demand anything from the kiss but slowly deepened it, feeling like there was all the time in the world. Harry was happy to note that Hermione hadn't pulled away and decked him yet, so he pulled her tighter and put a little bit more power into the kiss. Hermione instantly responded making Harry feel lightheaded.

Harry finally pulled away and whispered, "Are you sure, Hermione?" knowing that Hermione would understand that the question was about his insecurities and not about her.

"I am sure, Harry. This is something that we all want," Hermione responded before releasing him from her embrace.

As soon as Hermione and Harry disentangled, Draco, surprising each of them, swept Hermione into his arms and kissed her. The action surprised Harry but not as much as the feelings that accompanied that move did. Harry didn't feel jealous or angry at watching Draco and Hermione kiss, instead he felt like all was well in the world.

Harry chuckled at the apparent intensity of the kiss between Draco and Hermione. Draco never did anything soft or slow. Harry eased up behind Hermione, brushed her hair away from her neck, and slowly placed a kiss on the juncture between her neck and shoulders. Hermione instantly arched back into Harry, almost pulling away from her kiss with Draco.

Draco's eyes opened to see what had caused the reaction in Hermione and Harry saw a smirk when Draco caught his eye. Harry continued to pepper Hermione's neck with soft breathy kisses until she moaned. At her moan, Harry stopped for a moment before biting down hard on her neck. Hermione instantly tensed, breaking the kiss with Draco before shuddering in pleasure.

Harry released Hermione's neck and watched as she leaned back into him looking like she was about to collapse. Harry then reached over Hermione, supporting her with one arm, and grabbed Draco's neck bringing his lips to his.

This time Harry didn't let Draco control the kiss and so Harry made sure that it was slow and softer than before. Draco seemed to be tenser in this kiss than before but Harry didn't let that stop him. Harry then with exacting precision trailed slow kisses across Draco's cheek and down his neck. When he got to the juncture between his neck and shoulder, Harry paused and took his mouth away from Draco's neck. Harry was pleased to hear Draco growl with frustration and smirked just a little bit before biting him with the same intensity as he had Hermione's.

Harry pulled back to observe both Hermione and Draco a little unsteady on their feet. All of them were breathing heavily and when they finally got their breathing under control, Harry asked, "So does this mean we all agree to accept the fact that we are all mates?"

Hermione and Draco shared a quick look before Hermione broke out in a huge smile and said "I believe it does, Harry."

Harry smiled back at them. It was then that Draco noticed the time and that they had better get back to their respective Common Rooms before they got into trouble. Harry paled as he realized that he hadn't thought to bring either the cloak or the map with him when he rushed out of the Common Room earlier.

"I could just walk you two back and if anyone sees us I could give you detention, Harry," Draco said without the usual haughtiness colouring his voice.

Hermione and Harry agreed immediately and slowly they made their way back to the Common Room holding hands the entire way. Harry felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of him. He didn't realize it till later but the pull that had been pressuring him since the ritual had finally disappeared.

Harry and Hermione entered the now almost deserted Common Room smiling at each other not expecting one occupant of the Common room to jump up the moment they entered.

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Let me know how I did! Please review! They are like blueberries, ripe off the bush!


	16. Chapter 16

Don't own, don't make money off of, and please don't sue. Thank you very much to AnnHarrisForever for being my Beta. All the mistakes are mine. Sorry I didn't post last Thursday. I had a wedding to go to and though I was promised to have time…well the best laid plans of mice and men!

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"Where have you two been? Are you alright, Harry? What happened?" Ron asked, launching the questions at them. At Harry's and Hermione's confused expression Ron continued, "I was worried after you two left and didn't come back for a while. So I grabbed the map out of your trunk, Harry and was going to go find you but then I saw you were being escorted back by Malfoy. I thought it might be better not to leave. So did you get another detention, Harry?

Harry and Hermione shared a long look debating on whether this was the time that they should tell Ron everything that had happened to them. They had talked about telling Ron before and including him but it never seemed like a good time. Hermione gave an almost imperceptible shrug of her shoulders letting Harry make the decision.

"No, I didn't get detention," Harry said slowly and was about to continue when Ron spoke excitedly.

"That is fantastic, how did you manage to do that? No! Wait! Don't tell me! Hermione must have saved the day and got you out of it!" Ron was grinning ear to ear at Hermione by the time he was finished talking. Ron continued to praise Hermione for getting Harry out of trouble until Harry had enough and shouted "Ron, that isn't what happened! Please just shut up and listen to us for a minute."

Ron looked startled, he noticed the looks between Harry and Hermione, sighed, and seemed to visibly steel himself before saying, "I think I know what you guys are about to tell me. I must admit that I was a little peeved at first about the whole thing and then I was angry that you didn't tell me **s**traight away but since you didn't tell anyone I forgive you."

"What are you talking about, Ron?" Hermione interjected before Ron could continue.

"Isn't it obvious? You two are going to tell me that you are officially dating." Ron said rolling his eyes at Hermione, "And as I said, I was angry at first since I kind of figured me and Hermione could have been an item, but I figure now I can start looking for birds that are much more my type."

"Ron! Will you just listen for once?" Harry nearly shouted again cutting Ron off before he got hexed by Hermione and thus preventing them from telling him tonight.

Ron shut his mouth abruptly and gave Harry a strange look before saying, "Alright, Harry, go ahead."

Harry looked towards Hermione again but realized that Hermione was too busy staring daggers at Ron to help.

"Hermione and I have been keeping a few things from you, Ron. Hermione and I are dating as you surmised but we are also in a relationship with Draco Malfoy," Harry started off.

Ron's mouth dropped opened and his eyes widened. Harry used his lapse of saying anything to start the story from the beginning and continued till the end with Hermione chiming in here and there. As Harry finished the story he noticed that Ron hadn't moved at all during the explanation and was staring at the floor.

"No," Ron said quietly after a few moments had passed.

When he didn't say anything more and still didn't look at either of them, Hermione ventured a timid, "No?"

Ron finally held his head up and glared at both of them. "No. You two….TRAITORS! I will not listen to this. You two have been going behind my back this whole time, protecting that nasty FERRET! How could you have done this to me?" Ron spat at them.

"I am truly sorry, Ron. I wasn't planning on telling anyone about Draco asking me for help. When Hermione stumbled onto it, I just thought we would do a spell and that would be the end of it. I didn't think things would turn out this way." Harry said desperately, trying to calm Ron down.

"You should have let Malfoy die. You shouldn't have had to even think about it before turning him down. We could have laughed about it all year." Ron said spitefully.

"You don't mean that, Ron," Hermione replied gasping at the venom in Ron's eyes.

"I mean every word of it. Malfoy should have been left to his kind to deal with but no the wonderful, fabulous Boy-Who-Lived and his Know-it-all girlfriend had to save his ass while ignoring their supposedly best friend. I should have seen this betrayal coming from a mile away as you two kept going to the 'library'." By the end of his rant, Ron was bright red, heaving and gulping for air.

"You would really let Malfoy die, even though he never seriously did anything to warrant a death sentence?" Harry asked quietly, his eyes sad in resignation.

Ron nodded his head in the affirmative, still red faced and glaring at them. Ron then turned to head up to his bed when a shield popped into being preventing him from leaving.

Harry shook his head sadly, "I am sorry, Ron, but we cannot let you leave without some insurance that you won't tell anyone about Draco."

Ron gaped at them and then raised his wand contemptuously and vowed, "Upon my magic as a wizard, I will not tell any of the secrets that Harry Potter and Hermione Granger have told me this night or before this night."

A bright light shot out of Ron's wand and spun around him once before disappearing. "Satisfied?" Ron asked with one eyebrow raised and a look of contempt that would have done Death Eaters proud.

Harry nodded and then turned to Hermione and said, "Hermione, you can drop the shield now."

Hermione looked at Ron and pleaded with her eyes for him not to go but once she finally dropped the shield he spun on his heel and left.

"Harry, what are we going to do? Maybe we shouldn't have…"Hermione trailed off as she started to cry.

Harry didn't know what to say so he just walked over and pulled Hermione into a hug, rubbing her back in what he hoped to be a comforting manner. She quickly hugged him back and buried her head in his chest.

"I don't know what we're going to do, Hermione, but we couldn't have…"Harry trailed off.

"I know, Harry, I know but its Ron…."Hermione answered, her voice muffled from talking with her head on his chest.

Harry didn't say anything but tightened his hold on Hermione, trying to take comfort in holding her. After a while, Hermione stepped back and wiped her face with her hands.

"We should go to bed," Hermione said wearily. Harry took her hand and led her over to the staircase that led to the Girl's Dormitory. He slowly bent down and gave her a chaste kiss on the lips.

"Goodnight, Hermione."

"Goodnight, Harry. See you in the morning," Hermione replied.

Harry watched Hermione disappear up the stairs to the Girl's Dormitory and then headed up to his own bed.

Harry and Hermione never noticed the last person in the Common Room who was sitting frozen in a chair not daring to move as they had overheard everything.


	17. Chapter 17

Don't own, don't make money off of, and please don't sue. Thank you very much to AnnHarrisForever for being my Beta. All the mistakes are mine.

* * *

Harry thought about the argument that they had had with Ron for a long time that night. He thought about how adamant Ron was in regards to letting Draco deal with the Death Eaters all by himself. Harry thought about how quick Ron was last year to believe the worst of him and only apologized when it was so obvious a blind man could see it.

_Actually_, Harry thought, _Ron didn't apologize until after I had shown everyone up at the First Task, when people had started to praise me again. Does this mean that Ron only wanted to be around me when good things happened?_

Harry, later thought, he was ungenerous thinking that, considering all the other things that they had been through together, like in Second Year, with the spiders. Harry continued to dwell on his friendship with Ron and what it meant that it appeared to be breaking long into the night. Harry did come to two conclusions about Ron and the situation he was now in.

The first was that Ron had always had as many prejudices as any Pureblood that he had ever met and these prejudices drove him to see things in black and white and stunted him in his thinking. Ron thought if you were in a different House or if your parents followed a certain path then you were evil and didn't deserve anything. Ron's thinking was as bad as the Death Eaters thinking that wizards born with muggle parents were less than worthy. The only difference was who was less than worthy.

The second conclusion that Harry came to was that Ron had abandoned him once and he had survived so if Ron was going to abandon him again, he could survive again. Harry knew that it hurt him thinking that he was losing the first friend he ever had and knew that it might always grieve him but he could live with that pain. He could live with that pain because he knew he was doing the right thing. It was the right thing to try to save Draco and Harry believed that trying to save someone from a possible horrible fate was worth the pain of losing that friend.

With those conclusions in his head, Harry made a vow to not let Ron's decision affect him too much. Harry knew it was going to hurt letting Ron go but it was Ron's decision and there wasn't anything he could do about it. If he was being honest he frankly didn't have the time to run around trying to change Ron's mind. Harry had drifted to sleep with the vow repeating over and over in his mind.

When Harry woke the next morning he felt wonderful. The pull that had been his constant drain was completely gone. He smiled at the reason the pull was gone. Harry let his mind wander to kissing both Draco and Hermione. He would have been quite content to lay in bed daydreaming but he felt a nagging sensation that Hermione was anxiously waiting for him to go downstairs.

Harry rolled out of bed and started to grab his clothes when he noticed Ron's curtains closed around his bed. His good mood vanished as he remembered their confrontation last night and his subsequent vow. Harry roughly got dressed and headed down the stairs as quickly as possible. Hermione was waiting for him just as he had thought, at the bottom of the stairs. Harry noticed that she looked worried.

"Good morning, Hermione," Harry said as soon as he was close to her.

"Good morning, Harry," Hermione said shyly.

Harry smiled widely at her coy tone and kissed her before wrapping her up in a big hug, to the shock of the other students in the Common Room. The whispers broke out immediately, which they ignored.

"It will be ok, Hermione, as long as we are together, it will be ok. We can't force Ron to be our friend and we know what we did was right, so that is all that matters," Harry whispered into Hermione's ear.

"Should we wait for him, just in case he has thought about it and wants to stay friends?" Hermione whispered back while leaning into his embrace.

"Yeah, we can see what he does this morning, but if nothing has changed we should try and not worry about it anymore," Harry stated. Seeing Hermione nod in agreement, Harry led her over to where they generally waited for Ron never once letting go of her hand.

Ron came down the stairs about a half an hour later, looked towards where Harry and Hermione were waiting, purposefully looked away and strode out of the Common Room without a word.

Harry felt like Ron had punched him in his gut. All of his vows and determination to not let it bother him were crumbling in the face of Ron ignoring them. Harry faintly heard Hermione sigh and turned his face towards her.

"That's our answer then. Are you ready to go to breakfast, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"That depends, Hermione, are you ready to deal with the gossip that our going out is going to produce?" Harry weakly teased.

"If you think a little gossip is going to keep me down, you have got another thing coming, mister," Hermione teased back. Harry and Hermione shared a weak smile before opening the portrait hole and greeting the day.

When they got to the Great Hall to eat breakfast they were greeted by people cheering and booing them as the gossip that they were together had reached everyone. Harry could hear the twins saying something like, "Finally! We can cash in on those bets now!" and other Gryffindors congratulating them saying things like, "Good for you two" and "Always knew you two would wind up together. Sadly Harry could also hear some of the jeers that went along the lines of "Did she use a love potion" and "Perfect couple the Know-it-all with the Fame-seeker".

Harry and Hermione tried to just get a seat at the table and ignore all of the cat-calls. They finally found a seat next to Neville and they both hunched their shoulders trying to ward off the noise of the other students. Harry tried to start up a normal conversation with Neville when a voice sliced through the Great Hall silencing the gossipers.

"So, Potter, I hear you are stooping to a new level of low, asking Granger out?" Draco asked, sneering at them.

Harry knew that Draco was going to have to comment on the new gossip of his love life so he wasn't worried about the exchange.

Harry straightened up in his seat and replied with a smirk, "I believe Malfoy that you are just jealous that I got there first."

"I am not jealous of you, Potter…" Draco started out saying but was interrupted by Hermione.

"Oh, in that case you must be jealous of me then. I'm sorry, Malfoy, but I didn't believe you swung that way, if you want I am sure we could convince Harry to include you," Hermione said with an air of nonchalance.

The entire Great Hall saw Draco Malfoy turn bright red, spit out a weak "I'll get you for this" and practically run out of the room. Only Harry, Hermione, Ron and one other person noticed when Draco paused at the entrance and threw them a smile and wink before leaving the Great Hall.

Harry and Hermione shared a laugh and were relieved that the gossips had stopped talking so loudly about them after the showdown with Draco.

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Please Review! I love them so much! Also go check out LR Earl's **The Soul of the Wolves**, another take on my challenge!


	18. Chapter 18

Don't own, don't make money off of, and please don't sue. Thank you very much to AnnHarrisForever for being my Beta. All the mistakes are mine.

Thank you for all your reviews! They mean the world to me!

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The next month was very good for Harry, although Ron continued to ignore him and Hermione even though he still came to the D.A. meetings regularly. Ron soon started to date Lavender Brown soon after and other students thought that the breach between them was because Ron was jealous of Harry and Hermione officially being a couple. Harry was grateful that Ron never said a word otherwise.

The D.A. was running as smoothly as any illegal organization that had to change meetings every week in order not to get caught could do. Harry was surprised to find that Neville and Luna seemed to thrive at the meetings and were none too slowly becoming the best students. Harry learned from Neville that the teachers had started to noticed that some of their students were doing remarkably better and that they all were in the D.A. Harry also noticed that Neville tended to hang around after the 'lesson' and seemed to want to talk to him about something but always left before Harry could ask him what that something was.

Harry's relationships with Hermione and Draco, the two people who were slowly becoming the most important people in his life, continued to grow. With Draco, Harry found a rival who could compete with him on a physical level and someone who could bully him into being a better leader because he wouldn't put up with shit. With Hermione, Harry found a person who could comfort him and someone who wasn't afraid to show him what his limits were.

The three of them tried to continue to hang out after the D.A. meetings but with Umbridge trying to discover them by using the Inquisitor Squad more and more it became almost impossible as Draco was still a member. Draco tried to give them plenty of notice of when Umbridge had them patrolling or at least steer the Squad away from the meetings but it was becoming more difficult. They would sometimes meet at night at Moaning Myrtle's bathroom but that could only happen late at night and they needed to sleep. Thus the three of them had to get creative in order to meet without anyone being the wiser.

Hermione came up with the idea of meeting in the library. Harry had scoffed at the idea due to the amount of students who were always in the library but Draco had looked thoughtful as they did need to spend time in the library looking for spells for the D.A., doing homework and studying for their O.W.L.S. Hermione and Draco proceeded to figure out the amount of spells that they needed to cast to allow the three of them to meet in the library without anyone noticing that they were together. Harry had to allow for the sheer brilliance of their plan.

Their plan consisted of Harry and Hermione finding a table in the library and start studying like normal. Draco would come up and loudly insult them or cause a scene that people would notice. He would then pretend to walk away and when everyone's eyes were on Harry and Hermione cast a notice-me-not charm. While everyone would assume that Draco had left he would then come around and sit with them as they cast a shield and illusion charm. The shield charm would make it so that no one could see them and the illusion charm would show Harry and Hermione sitting and studying quietly. If anyone approached Harry and Hermione to talk to them, Draco would hide with another notice-me-not spell, they would drop the charms and Draco would cause another scene to escape with no one being the wiser that he was with them the whole time. Of course, the charms would start a drain on the caster but they figured it was good practice at building their stamina.

The library became their third safe haven. The three of them worked on homework and Harry was pleased to find that Draco seemed to be able to keep up with some of the intellectual ideas that Hermione could spout. Harry wasn't dumb and could keep up with her but he rarely was in the mood for an intellectual debate. Harry preferred to deal with the present issues, like Umbridge, than debating other issues. Draco seemed to like debating with Hermione especially about the seclusion of the Magical World from the Muggle World and if the Magical World was indeed stunting themselves as technology was advancing at amazing speeds.

The only problem was without the constant pull that was such a burden; Harry wasn't at all comfortable with the physical side of the relationship. He still loved to duel with them, and the conversations that they had made Harry feel wonderful but when it seemed like a goodnight kiss was in order, Harry tended to shy away. Harry felt bad at being shy around Draco and Hermione because he knew that they wanted to be with him as much as he wanted to be with them but putting himself out there like that scared the shit out of him.

Harry knew that Hermione understood his fear because she seemed to be alright with lightly holding his hand in the hallways between some classes, the chaste kisses that he gave her before bed and she somehow always managed to end up cuddled underneath his arm while they were sitting without him noticing or having a panic attack.

Harry didn't have that luck with Draco. Draco tended to push things to Harry's limit and Harry reacted by pulling further away. Harry would go to give a quick kiss to Draco and Draco would respond by pulling Harry tightly to him and try to deepen the kiss.

As more time passed, Harry stopped being comfortable with initiating anything physical with Draco because he didn't want to have to reject Draco. Harry felt Draco's frustration with him through the link but didn't think he could do much to ease the tension without pushing him further away. The tension had gotten to the point where Harry and Draco didn't even brush up against each other without reacting in some dramatic fashion or another (Harry tended to flinch away while Draco tended to hold on tight).

Hermione suggested that after the Halloween Feast that they meet and relax together for a few hours hoping that would dispel the tension. The Halloween Feast was as wonderful as it had been in past years. Floating pumpkins and decorations that tried to scare students made for a festive atmosphere. Harry had a fantastic time chatting to the twins about their inventions and was in a great mood when the time came to meet up with Hermione and Draco. They had left the feast earlier to complete Prefect rounds and Harry was to meet them in the Room of Requirement.

Harry was happy to note that he was the first to reach the room and quickly walked back and forth the required three times before opening the door to find two comfy couches and a roaring fireplace. Harry jumped on one of the couches and decided to get lost in watching the fire while waiting for Hermione and Draco.

As soon as Harry heard the door open, he jumped off the couch and turned around with a grin on his face. The smile disappeared quickly though as he took in Draco's annoyed and Hermione's exasperated expressions.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked worriedly.

"Nothing is wrong, Potter, we are all just having a great time, aren't we?" Draco said sarcastically.

Harry was flabbergasted at the apparent hostility in Draco's voice and threw a questioning look over at Hermione. Hermione just shrugged her shoulders and sent a look that conveyed that it was Harry's turn to deal with him.

"Draco, nothing can be fixed if you don't let us know what is bothering you," Hermione tried to reason.

Draco ran a hand over his face and through his hair before muttering, "Sorry, I am just a little off. Can we just forget it and relax?"

"Sure, but you have to call me by my name if you want that," Harry said with a smile trying to lighten up the mood.

"Fine, Harry. Shall we have some fun now?" Draco smiled back with only a hint of frustration leaking through.

Harry nodded and looked at Hermione who seemed unsure at brushing off Draco's earlier mood, but eventually she nodded.

The three of them stretched out on the couches and proceeded to play some Wizard's Chess, Exploding Snap and discussed how to destroy it the Ministry. The plans that they came up with ranged from ineffectual (trying to plant a spy who would spread doubt) to out-right absurdity (turning everyone there into llamas).

They were having a great time together and when Draco won the last game of Exploding Snap, Harry jumped up and kissed Draco enthusiastically. Harry immediately felt Draco's arms encircle him and hold him closer. Harry was enjoying the kiss and wasn't feeling his normal panic until Draco started to deepen the kiss. Harry felt Draco's hand rubbing his back and slowly running a hand down his chest. Harry started to feel awkward and tried to take control of the kiss and bring it back to his comfort level but Draco was not having it. Harry suddenly felt trapped and started to end the kiss when Harry felt Draco's one hand snake down the front of his jeans rubbing his hard on and then tried to undo the button of his pants.

Harry jerked back violently and pushed Draco away, trying to calm his breathing. He looked wildly around the room and saw that Draco landed half on the couch and Hermione was discreetly taking her hand out of her pants. She took a half step toward him but Harry shook his head uncontrollably and she stopped.

"I think it is getting late, umm, we should get going back to our Common Rooms," Harry said in a rush. Harry didn't look at Draco at all after that and fled as soon as Hermione nodded.

"Harry, you need to talk to Draco about this," Hermione said as soon as she had caught up to Harry, "He doesn't understand why you are pushing him away and it is hurting our relationship."

Harry groaned at the scolding in her voice but then said "I know. I know I need to talk to him, but how do I explain that although I want us to be physical, I have panic attacks every time we go further than light kissing? And, for that matter why don't I have them when I kiss you?" Harry asked with a sideways look at her.

"You don't have panic attacked when you are kissing me because I have been letting you control the pace of the kiss. I've known you for a lot longer and I have figured out that you aren't used to physical actions. I have known that since our first year and how you tensed when I gave you that hug," Hermione pointed out.

"That was the first hug I had ever gotten," Harry mumbled ashamed.

"Oh!" Hermione exclaimed flabbergasted on what to say next.

"I will talk to Draco tomorrow after the Quidditch match," Harry said before kissing her goodnight and walking up to his bed.

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	19. Chapter 19

Don't own, don't make money off of, so please don't sue. Thank you very much to AnnHarrisForever for being my Beta. All the mistakes are mine. I want to thank all the people who have reviewed! It means so much to me! I hope that this chapter lives up to your high expectations!

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Harry had a restless night thinking about how he was going to explain his reactions to physical intimacy to Draco. _How do I tell Draco Malfoy that I never had a hug till I met Hermione? Should I just come out and tell him that the Dursley's treated me worse than dirt on their shoes? I really want Draco and Hermione, damn, I really would like to go further than what we have done so far but I just freeze up when we are together. I wonder if there is a way to show my dreams to them, then they would definitely know that I want them with my whole being. I hope I can convey that to Draco tomorrow. _Harry woke up to Neville shaking his shoulders.

"Wake up, Harry!" Neville said cheerfully, "You need to get down to the Great Hall for breakfast so that you have your strength up to defeat Slytherin today!"

Harry reluctantly got out of bed and got ready for the game. He was amused when he saw Luna wearing a Gryffindor headpiece and complimented her immediately on it. Luna beamed at Harry and told him that she knew that they were going to win due to the lack of nargles around his head. Hermione nodded in agreement that they definitely were going to win if Luna didn't see any nargles. The twins chose at that moment to come and banter with Harry about how they were going to protect him during the game. Harry noticed Ron shooting them a dirty look as he could not join in the normal banter at the table and instead sat with Lavender looking miserable.

Harry was looking optimistic about the whole day when the first hint of bad luck came his way. The Slytherin team came over to the Gryffindor table and started to sing this really annoying tune that made fun of the fact that Ron was the new keeper. The song continued to berate all the players on the Gryffindor team but mostly centred on the new team members. Harry was a little incensed about the tune but his anger turned to confusion as he saw Draco singing along and then took credit for the creation of the song.

The Gryffindor team rallied around their new members and the twins made a speech before the game that made everyone laugh and relax before the start of the game. Ron was the only player that didn't seem to relax and even though Harry wanted to try and comfort him he knew it would only hurt him when Ron turned away again.

The second hint of bad luck was during the game itself. The game was going well except for the fact that Ron had been rattled by the Slytherin taunting and thus missed every single save. Harry was looking around for the snitch when Draco flew right at him. Harry dodged out of the way and looked for the snitch which is what he assumed Draco was going for but realized that Draco was just being an ass. The two of them had talked about chatting and having fun with each other while in the Quidditch games with no one being the wiser, but Harry didn't think that Draco was doing that now. Harry didn't think too hard about it though as just then he saw the snitch and went after it. Harry flew a perfect line and stole the snitch right out from under Draco's hand, winning the game for Gryffindor. The two of them landed right near the middle of the pitch.

"I told you that I would catch the snitch right out from under you if you didn't keep your eyes up front, Malfoy," Harry breezily said smiling thinking about that fake fight of theirs.

"Sorry if I didn't see you, Potter, it must have been all of the filth you insist on hanging out with, making you hard to see," Draco sneered.

Harry was taken aback with Draco's insult since it wasn't anything like how Draco had been treating him lately. Harry frowned and was about to retort when Draco continued.

"Oh look here comes that filth now, trying to wipe out the dirt from under their nails without realizing that they are producing the dirt," Draco said when the twins came within earshot.

The twins stiffened and narrowed their eyes before George said, "Sod off, Malfoy."

"Poor things, they smell as well, how do you stand the stench, Potter? Unless your Mudblood mother instilled the need to play with filth, now that I think about it, it must be your mother. I would have thought that being with her for such a short time would lessen her influence but apparently I was wrong," Draco said flippantly.

Harry saw red and didn't think when he punched Draco. He was barely aware that George had also gone for one of the other goons on the Slytherin team who echoed Draco's sentiments. Harry still was seething as he got hauled off the pitch and into Professor McGonagall's office.

Harry was silent when he was told that he was being reckless again by Professor McGonagall. Harry was silent when Professor Umbridge burst into the room and banned him from playing Quidditch ever again at Hogwarts, though he did start grinning manically which unnerved the other occupants in the room. Professor Umbridge also sentenced him to detention for two weeks. Harry chuckled darkly to himself about the effects of him writing 'I must not tell lies' into his skin because if he didn't tell the truth he wouldn't be in part of the mess he was in now.

Harry didn't react at all until later that night when he met up with Draco and Hermione in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Harry entered the bathroom to see that both of them were already there and Hermione was scolding Draco. She stuttered to a stop when Harry came in.

"Harry, I know I messed up…" Draco started to say. Harry just cut him off.

"Fuck you, Malfoy," Harry said with a dead tone. Draco's eyes widened in alarm and Hermione looked worried.

"Do you really want to know why I react the way I do when we are alone, huh?" Harry asked tonelessly. Draco shook his head and tried to apologize but Harry cut him off again.

"I lived in the cupboard underneath the stairs till I was eleven. Hermione gave me my first ever hug in our first year here. I have never had a normal year here and my normal at home included being beaten, starved, neglected and hated."

Harry shoved Draco up against the wall and then asked, "Do you want to see what my loving home did to me?"

Harry undid his robe and pulled off his shirt. Harry slowly turned around. On his stomach, across his chest and all over his back were scars. Hermione gasped in horror and Draco looked like he had been punched in the stomach.

"That is what my loving family did to me and you know what is funny about your little speech this afternoon? The funny part about it is that my only memory of my mother is her screaming for Voldemort not to kill me but to kill her instead. If that is what filth my mother, how did you put it, instilled in me, then I am proud of that."

Harry put on his shirt looked Draco straight in the eye and finished with, "My mother willingly died to protect me, so you can shove your shit up your ass. I don't want to hear it. Fuck you."

With that Harry turned on his heel and stormed out of the bathroom.

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	20. Chapter 20

I don't have any money so you won't get any if you sue. (Though I don't own it and am just playing with it so I don't know why you would sue…unless you are crazy and then it makes crazy sense). Thank you very much to AnnHarrisForever for being my Beta. All the mistakes are mine!

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Harry was so angry that he tossed and turned all night. He dreamed of wanting to enter the door that Voldemort kept showing him and Draco becoming a Death Eater while Ron was saying, "I told you so."

Harry woke up earlier than he usually did and since he couldn't go back to sleep he thought about what had happened yesterday. He still felt the coil of anger burning deep within him and knew that if he didn't use the energy from the anger it would put him in a foul mood all day. Harry decided to do something constructive with his anger.

He had been in such a nice place for the last month that some of his determination to stop what Umbridge had been doing to the school had lessened. Harry decided that just having the D.A. wasn't enough to show her that she didn't have the control that she so desperately craved. With that in mind, Harry asked Fred and George to meet him at the Room of Requirement after breakfast.

Once they agreed that they would meet him, Harry settled into one of the oversized chairs to wait for Hermione to come down. He didn't have to wait for long.

"Harry!" Hermione greeted while rushing over to where he was. She seemed to check herself half way before walking slowly till she was next to him as she tentatively asked, "How are you doing?"

Harry gave a half smile and replied, "I'm doing alright, Hermione. I'm still angry but I will be ok."

"I talked to Draco for a long time last night, Harry. He really had no idea that your family life was less than ideal," Hermione made a face at using the words 'less than ideal' but continued.

"He told me to tell you that he wants to apologize and will do anything to make it up to you. He didn't know why you were pushing him away and he had heard a rumour that two Gryffindors were all over each other in the Common Room and he thought that they were us and that we were holding back on him. Of course the rumours were talking about how Ron and Lavender can't sit in the same room together for five seconds without their tongues being down each other's throats."

Hermione made another face at Ron's love life which made Harry chuckle.

"Harry, Draco was jealous that we could hold hands and seemed so close when he was forced to watch from the shadows. He really is sorry and told me that if you want a public apology then he would be willing to do so, even if it means lessening the protection. Can you forgive him?" Hermione pleaded with Harry.

Harry sighed, shook his head, reached out to grasp Hermione's hand and then slowly said, "I don't think I can forgive him immediately, it will happen in time but not right now. You should let him know that I don't want him to put himself at risk by making a public apology."

Harry saw Hermione nod in understanding before biting her lip and looking away, as she did when she wanted to say something but wasn't sure of herself. Harry nudged her with his knee and when he caught her eye, he raised his eyebrows quizzically.

Hermione dropped her eyes and asked," Why didn't you tell me about how bad it was at the Dursley's? Was I not a good enough friend?"

Harry reached out with his free hand and tilted her head up so he could meet her eyes. "Hermione, you are the best friend a boy could have. I didn't tell you because, well, I never told anyone after the first time I tried to and got thrown in the cupboard for a week."

"Oh, Harry!" Hermione cried before wrapping her arms around him and burrowing her face into his neck.

"It's ok, Hermione, I am alive and it's ok," Harry said trying to sooth her.

"No! It's not ok, I will kill them if I ever see them," Hermione said fiercely.

Harry chuckled at her obvious energy for revenge on his behalf. "Ok, you can kill them Hermione, but first let's head down to breakfast and let me tell you about my meeting with the twins later today."

Hermione looked exasperated for a moment before letting Harry lead her out of the Common Room towards the Great hall for breakfast. At the entrance to the Great Hall, Harry spotted Draco waiting for them. Draco looked like he hadn't had a very good night, with his usually impeccable hair sticking out at odd angles. Harry wanted to brush right by Draco and not even acknowledge his presence but Hermione made him slow down by tugging at his hand. Harry stopped right outside the doors to let Hermione speak to Draco. Harry briefly met Draco's eyes before tugging Hermione forward towards their seats.

After breakfast, Harry and Hermione headed up to the seventh floor and the Room of Requirement. On the second floor Harry noticed that they were being followed by Blaise Zabini and Daphne Greengrass. He nudged Hermione and whispered in her ear, "Why do you think they are following us? Do you think Umbridge sent them?"

"I have no idea why they are following us. I don't think Umbridge sent them because why would she send only those two and not a whole bunch more of the Inquisitor squad. I think we should split up and lose them, I will meet you at the Room once I lose my tail," Hermione replied quietly.

"Sounds like a plan," Harry whispered back before saying louder, "Ok, Hermione if you really want to go to the library on a bright, clear day like today, I won't stop you but if you reconsider I will be up in the Astronomy Tower."

Hermione lightly cuffed him for using the old 'Hermione goes to the library' excuse before letting him go and turning towards the staircase that would lead her to the library. As Harry expected, Greengrass followed her. Harry sighed, thinking of ways to get rid of his tail and started to make his way to the Room of Requirement. He didn't want to go all the way up to the Astronomy Tower so instead he just wandered through the maze of hallways and doubled back until he was sure that Zabini wasn't following him anymore.

Harry reached the Room of Requirement and slipped inside to be greeted by Fred and George throwing flaming balls that slightly resembled quaffles at each other.

"Hi, Harry. Like our newest invention?" Fred asked.

"It will make the game of Quidditch even more exciting! We are going to call it Flaming Quidditch," George continued.

"So that when you lose a quaffle to the other team, this ball comes flying out at you to engulf you in flames." Fred said while barely catching one.

"Of course the flames don't actually set you alight but the shame of having flames lick at you, should improve your game. Especially when you can't touch a quaffle when surrounded by flames, of course that is mostly because the flames tend to melt the quaffle." George finished.

"Umm sure guys, that sounds fun," Harry said uncertainly while hoping that Hermione wouldn't be long.

"So what did you want to talk to us about, Harry?" George said after catching one of the flaming balls and putting the flame out.

"I was hoping to wait until Hermione got here before I explain," Harry replied, shifting uncomfortably.

"Ooh, are you finally going to tell us about how you and Hermione are actually dating and protecting a certain blonde Slytherin ponce?" Fred asked with a fake leer.

"What!?" Harry yelped in surprise. _How did they know? _ Harry thought furiously. _I can't let them continue to know about Draco, that means the only choice I have is to attack them and wipe their memories._

Harry pulled out his wand, fully intending to somehow subdue the twins. He knew he had to act fast. Harry hoped that Hermione would arrive soon because even if he could subdue both of them he wasn't confident enough to try and wipe their memories without brain damage.

_I don't want to do this but I gave my word that I would protect Draco. _

Harry reluctantly started to raise his wand to fire the first spell.

His face must have reflected his intentions because suddenly Fred and George dropped to their knees, held their hands up and said, "We surrender, oh merciful leader."

Harry paused, but didn't lower his guard.

"Did Ron tell you about Malfoy?" Harry hissed at the twins.

Harry was furious now at Ron and was thinking of ways to get him back when George piped up, "No, Ron didn't tell us, you did. Well actually you told Ron while I was in the room. We were working on another invention that would transmit sounds from one room to another when you were spilling your soul to our dear idiot of a brother."

At Harry's questioning gaze, Fred continued completely serious for once, "We haven't told anyone and we won't. We will take any promise that you deem necessary for you to trust us.

"You have done so much for us and we think of you like a brother in arms," George said as he continued, "We told you that you have us in your corner, I wonder when you will start believing it?"

_Should I trust the twins not to tell or should I make them go through the same ritual that I forced on Draco? _Harry thought before replying to the twins.

"Thanks, guys; I don't know what to say about that. I do trust you but" Harry slowly said before continuing, "Obviously I didn't intend for you to find out about Draco, Hermione and I. I made a promise to them and I intend to keep it."

"Sorry I'm late, since I was _forced_ to go to the library, I decided to pick up a few books while I was there," Hermione said as she breezed into the room not looking up. Hermione immediately stopped when she looked up and saw the twins kneeling and Harry looking unhappy.

"What is going on?" Hermione asked.

"The twins know about Draco." Harry said bluntly.

Hermione blanched before pulling out her wand, muttering about ways to kill a certain ginger, which amused Harry to no end

The twins had matching looks of horror on their faces before scrambling to their feet and clumsily reaching for their wands.

"We aren't going to tell anyone!" Fred said while George added, "Ron didn't tell us, you did!"

Harry disarmed the twins while Hermione bound them as soon as they tried to move. Hermione started towards the exit, still muttering about what she would do as soon as she saw a certain person when Harry grasped her hand and spun her around.

"Hermione, Ron didn't tell them, we did. You don't need to go hunt him down. What we need to do is a memory charm on them so that they don't remember what they heard." Harry said, sounding depressed with the thought.

"It's dangerous, Harry. That charm can erase more than their memory, if it isn't done the right way and we have never even attempted it before," Hermione stated sadly.

I know, Hermione, but what choice do we have?" Harry asked still sounding unhappy with the plan.

"Well, you could trust us! We haven't told anyone and we aren't going too" Fred practically yelled at them.

"Why do you trust, Malfoy that ponce, more than you trust us?" George asked at only a slightly lower volume.

"I didn't trust Malfoy. I made him go through a ritual that forces us together," Harry said sullenly.

_Is that why what Draco said hurts so badly? Was that his true opinion of me and the ritual just brought out something in me that forced them to be with me? _Harry stopped paying attention to what was being said by the twins while he contemplated his thoughts.

Hermione's hand came out of nowhere, startling him. Hermione grasped his chin, forced his head up, and made him stare into her eyes before saying, "Stop. The ritual didn't force us together. We made that decision or do you not remember that and need a reminder?"

Harry gazed into her eyes which had a strange intensity about them. Harry nodded abruptly, then chuckled and replied "No, I don't need a reminder even though I wouldn't mind one."

Harry laughed as Hermione swatted his arm lightly. He grabbed Hermione's hand and lightly kissed her knuckles before turning back to the twins who were still bound and trying to wriggle free.

"You two said that you were in my corner and would be willing to prove it. Are you still willing to do so?" Harry asked while holding onto Hermione's hand like it was a life line.

Fred and George shared a look before Fred replied, "Yes, we are willing to prove to you that we are in your corner, but why do we have to? We have been your friends since we met you."

"My father trusted his best friends. One of his best friends betrayed him and as a result I am an orphan. If it was only my life, I would trust you with it but since I have to protect others I will not allow myself to trust anyone without a vow or unshakable bond with me," Harry explained slowly, testing the thought on his own tongue as he spoke. Hermione's hand tightened in his and when Harry looked questioningly down at her he could see gratitude and love reflecting back at him.

"You continue to surprise us, Harry. We had thought that you were going to be like another younger brother but every time you do something we see you in a different light. I can't explain it but it makes us willing to follow you into anything and help you. I would be willing to agree to anything you think of to prove to you that I am serious when I say I am your man," George replied seriously.

"I agree with what George said. We have always operated as though as we can only trust each other but somehow I know we can trust you with anything. I want to be worthy of your trust in return," Fred said solemnly.

"There is a ritual that tied us to Malfoy, would you be willing to complete the ritual as well?" Hermione asked. When the twins nodded, she continued, "Then we will leave your memories intact but you will have to take a vow that you will not talk about what you know until the ritual is ready to be completed. The earliest that we can do the ritual is right before the holidays because the materials need to be acquired and prepared."

The twins each said the vow that they would not tell anyone else about what they knew about the relationship between Harry, Hermione, and Draco. Harry released them out of the spell that held them captive.

"So, now that we have determined that you didn't ask us here to discuss your love life, what did you ask us here to talk about?" George asked after the twins stood up and had their wands back.

Harry gave them a half smile before answering, "I asked you here to determine if you can mass produce some of the jokes that you create. I was hoping to supply the D.A. and other students with them so that we can annoy Umbridge and cause chaos."

"We can start working on that, but it might take a while to supply that many people," Fred said while thoughtfully stroking his chin before continuing, "With that many people and that many jokes, what are you hoping to accomplish?"

"I want to take down Umbridge," Harry said with no hesitation as he continued, "She thinks she owns this school because everyone is afraid of her. I want to show her that she isn't a power to be feared and that she should be afraid of us. The D.A. is part one of that process but now we need to cause her some chaos. The constant pranks will be phase two which will hopefully lead us straight into phase three."

"And what, might we ask, is phase three?" George asked warily.

"Total annihilation of Umbridge and control of the school under Harry," Hermione said, her tone deadly serious.

The twin's grins turned feral and Harry was suddenly very glad that they were on his side.

"We think we could get behind that plan." George said, flashing a deadly smile.

"We definitely will help you cause chaos for Umbridge, she won't know what has hit her when we get through with her," Fred added with the same spooky smile.

Hermione shook her head. "No. We want her to know exactly what hit her and who. She needs to be taught a lesson and we are going to make sure she learns it and never forgets it, if she survives that is."

"She won't survive, I'm going to make sure of that," Harry said with finality in his voice.

"Then she will be the lesson to the Ministry," Hermione said with a feral smile.

Harry didn't need a mirror to show him that his own face now held his own version of that deadly smile.

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	21. Chapter 21

Don't own, don't make money off of, and please don't sue. Thank you very much to AnnHarrisForever for being my Beta. All the mistakes are mine! Thank you so much for the reviews! I am so happy that people are enjoying my story!

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The twins left soon after they had discussed what pranks exactly would garner the results that Harry was looking for and how many of the student population they should supply. After the twins had left while still discussing logistics of getting the supplies that they would need to create the stockpile of pranks, Harry turned to Hermione.

"So, which books did you pick up at the library?" Harry asked.

"Oh, you know, books that deal with spells that can help one take over the world," Hermione said coyly.

Harry raised his eyebrows at Hermione's playful tone before pulling her in for a kiss. Harry kissed her softly and asked, "Is that so?"

At Hermione's nod, Harry kissed her hard on the mouth while pulling her hips flush to his. His tongue traced her lips before delving into her mouth. Their tongues sliding over each other's in a weird sort of dance. Harry's hands clenched and unclenched the fabric of her robes around her hips. He broke off the kiss and started kissing down her jaw and onto her neck.

"You can move your hands, you know," Hermione said a little breathlessly. Harry froze and slowly moved back enough to look Hermione in her eyes. "I don't mind your hands wandering. I trust you," Hermione said again.

Harry shook his head and dropped his hands from her waist. "It's not that I don't believe that you trust me, it's that I don't trust myself," Harry said sadly.

"Then you have to trust me. I know what I want and I know what I don't want. I would tell you if I wanted you to stop and I trust you to do it," Hermione said firmly.

Harry searched deeply in Hermione's eyes for something that would tell him to back off, but all he could see was her complete trust, love and a hint of frustration. He nodded deeply before pulling Hermione back to him.

Harry kissed Hermione with renewed passion. His mouth demanded entrance and found instant access. Their tongues once again danced with one another. They took turns sucking on each other's bottom lip and varied the pressure of the kisses. He placed his hands back on her hips as her arms went around his neck.

Harry let his hands wander the way that he wanted to but was too afraid to before. Harry's hands found the opening of Hermione's robes and shifted the fabric enough so that he could feel Hermione's clothes underneath. They didn't stay on her hips for very long. His hands traced the waistband of her skirt around to the back. Harry let his hands softly drift down across her tight ass, revelling in how her butt felt under his hands, before grasping the cheeks and pulling Hermione so tight against him that she could feel his erection. Harry was rewarded with a gasp of pleasure.

Harry almost lost himself in the sensations as he felt Hermione widen her stance to allow Harry to grind against her. Her hips gyrating against his, increasing the friction made Harry growl in desire. Her low moan of encouragement had his left hand travelling up her side to explore more territory.

His hand had just brushed against the side of her breast when a feeling of unease rippled through him. Harry paused for a few long seconds before Hermione grabbed Harry's hand and placed it solidly on her breast. He tentatively gave Hermione's breast a soft squeeze and enjoyed her reaction.

Suddenly Harry felt extremely worried, though he could not for the life of him figure out why. Harry looked bewildered for a moment, as he was caught between the feeling of high passion and feeling highly vulnerable. Harry broke the kiss, placed his hands back on Hermione's hips and held still as he was trying to understand what was happening to him.

"Why did you stop?" Hermione asked.

"I'm worried," Harry replied with a lost look on his face as he was trying to figure out where these feelings were coming from.

"Harry, you have got to trust me!" Hermione practically whined, "How can I make it any clearer that I am ok with what we were doing?"

"I do trust you, Hermione. Trust me; I was…no I do want to continue this. It isn't that," Harry said distractedly, "It is almost like these feelings aren't mine, but are making me want to respond with defensive magic. Don't you feel it?"

Hermione frowned at Harry and a thoughtful look came over her features. "I feel it too, but I thought it was you worrying about the physical stuff?" Hermione questioned.

"No, as I said I trust you and believe me when I say I wanted that to continue," Harry replied while vaguely gesturing to the obvious bulge in his pants.

Hermione giggled at the sight of Harry's arousal before coyly saying, "Why Mister Potter, you look like you could use some relief. I think I could help with that."

Harry shook his head trying to clear it of the images that came into his mind when he thought of the ways Hermione could help him find relief. He shot her a glance that said how unhelpful she was being that didn't quite come off as stern as he would have liked it.

Hermione's coy smile turned serious as she pondered aloud, "If you aren't worried about what we were doing, and I am not worried about what we were doing…"

Realization crashed through both of them at the same time. "DRACO!" They both shouted at the same time. Horror washed over them as the implications of Draco, being that uneasy about something which made them feel it, started to trickle in. Harry and Hermione stood there gaping at each other at a loss of what to do until they both felt a whirlwind of panic blow them into motion.

Harry and Hermione both headed towards the door when suddenly Harry turned back preventing Hermione from reaching the exit. "Hermione, I want you to head to the Common Room and get some back up. Look for the twins or some people that you trust from the DA and then come find us," Harry said urgently.

Hermione furrowed her brow before responding, "No, I'm coming with you. If Draco is in trouble, I have the same right as you do to go protect him."

Harry shook his head frantically before harshly saying, "Hermione, we don't have time to argue. Draco is in trouble and we need to get to him. I NEED you to get back-up. We don't know what is happening but with the level of Draco's panic, I would rather have more people on our side then be useless because we need more people."

At Hermione's nod Harry whirled around and ran as fast as he could towards the stairs that would lead him to the dungeons where the link to Draco was pulling him. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Hermione racing towards the Common Room and all he could think was, _at least Hermione will be safe considering I don't think the twins will be around the Common Room right now so it will take her awhile to make it down to the Dungeons and hopefully by then Draco will be safe again. I wonder what is happening to him. Could Umbridge have figured out that he was helping us? Could it be Snape or other Death Eaters? _

Harry launched himself down each set of stairs, taking every shortcut that he had ever learned cursing himself for being on the seventh floor while Draco was in the Dungeons. Harry shifted mid-flight into his wolf form knowing that four paws were faster than his two legs. Students cried out in alarm at seeing a wolf running through the corridors and scrambled to get out of his way but Harry barely saw them.

Harry was panting when he got to the open door of the classroom that he felt Draco was in. Harry barged into the classroom and was greeted with the sight of Draco being held at wand point by Blaise Zabini and Daphne Greengrass while Blaise was saying, "I know you are the mole for Potter's little group. All we want is for you to give a message to him."

Blaise stopped talking and both he and Daphne stared in shock as Harry flew past them to Draco's side. Harry determined that Draco was bound against moving and growled at Daphne who was holding Draco's wand. Harry prepared himself for battle when Draco's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"I would release me now and give me back my wand, if I were you two. It doesn't look like my mate here is going to wait for you to give me a message before tearing you two apart if I am still bound," Draco said calmly, acting like he had control the whole time, emitting none of the flood of relief that Harry felt through the bond.

Blaise and Daphne shared a look to which Harry growled louder and made a menacing show of his teeth. Quickly Blaise lowered his wand and Daphne rolled Draco's wand to Draco who shook himself from being bound so tightly and bent down to retrieve his wand.

"Now isn't this better, all of us holding our wands and being able to move away from an attack if it happened?" Draco continued suavely laying a hand down against Harry's head. At the sight of Draco's apparent control of the wolf, Daphne and Blaise nodded shortly even though they looked like they would rather drink a potion Neville had made.

Draco being in control of the situation again drawled after a few moments of silence, "So are we just going to stand around and hope that everyone forgets this little sneak attack on me or are you going to get to your point?"

"First, admit that you are in league with Potter and we will give you the message," Daphne coldly stated.

"Why would I ever admit to such a thing to people who attacked me from behind? If I was in league with Potter, and I am not admitting to such a thing, it would be a dangerous thing to admit to people who have been seemingly neutral throughout the years." Draco responded.

Blaise huffed and Daphne pursed her lips at Draco's response. "Being in league with Potter is a dangerous thing, we get that Malfoy. That is why we had to be sure that you couldn't attack us by attacking you first because if we said what we are going to say and you aren't who we think you are then we would be in a lot of trouble," Blaise spit out between his teeth.

"What Blaise is trying to say is that we want to join the group that Potter has put together," Daphne succinctly said.

She continued with, "We have finally decided to choose a side and the side that we have chosen is Potter's. We tried to talk to him directly but he keeps giving us the slip and so since we noticed the way you have been acting we decided to ask you to ask him if we can join."

Harry whined at Draco's feet wanting to change back and talk to the pair of Slytherins but Draco kept a firm hold on his fur. Draco reached through the bond and said, "Don't change back, we shouldn't trust them just yet…they would be assets but they could be testing my loyalties. Let me deal with them."

Harry agreed with Draco to let him take the lead in this. He also sent Draco a quick version of what had transpired with the Weasley twins.

Draco's face slowly morphed into a wicked smile that unnerved the two Slytherins. "I think that I have an idea that would work perfectly," he cooed.

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	22. Chapter 22

Don't own, don't make money off of, and please don't sue. Thank you very much to AnnHarrisForever for being my Beta. All the mistakes are mine. Thank you for everyone for the warm wishes! I had a great wedding ^_^

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Draco smirked at the two other Slytherins as they tried to appear unaffected by him taking complete control of the situation. Harry relaxed his stance at Draco's feet but still didn't take his eyes off the two people that he couldn't trust.

"You two have taken a huge risk by telling me that you want to be on Potter's side. You could be very wrong about me and have your heads on the chopping block within a surprisingly short amount of time." Draco said.

"Stop beating around the bush, Malfoy! We know what kind of risk we are taking! Now tell us the truth, can you get the message to Potter or not?" Daphne asked with a hiss.

"Any bloody person could be your messenger boy, hell; you could have sent Potter an owl. Why track me down, attack me and then ask if me I am a traitor or not?" Draco shot back.

"Do you honestly think that Potter is going to just accept our word that we are being truthful?" Blaise asked with a chortle.

"And why do you suppose I would just accept your word on something that important and reveal my true loyalties?" Draco asked with a raised eyebrow, appearing to become bored with the conversation as he started to pick at his fingernails.

The two Slytherins looked at each other for a moment as what Draco was saying to them and what he was looking for sank into their consciousness.

"What do you want us to do to prove that we are being serious?" Blaise said with a completely straight face.

Draco looked both of them up and down surveying them critically. Harry watched Draco's face, awed by how sexy he looked as he toyed with Daphne and Blaise. Draco felt Harry's eyes on him, threw him a crooked smile before turning around and slowly reaching into his bag, giving Harry a great view of his backside.

Harry blushed under all his fur and quickly turned back around to make sure Daphne and Blaise weren't going to attack when Draco had his back turned and was berating himself for getting distracted.

"There are three things that I would like for you to do to prove your sincerity. The first is that you sign this piece of paper," Draco said while pulling out the parchment that held all of the D.A.'s member's signatures even though it looked blank.

"What is on the parchment, Malfoy? We aren't going to sign anything without knowing what it is that we are signing and we both know blank pieces of parchment can hold so much information." Daphne replied primly.

"You don't trust me? Ouch! And here I thought you had already formed your opinions on where my loyalties lay. One of us is going to have to take a leap of faith here so either sign the parchment or leave and never speak to me again about this." Draco said menacingly.

Daphne grimaced but took a quill out of her bag and took a step forward to take the parchment out of Draco's hand. She signed it neatly and watched with a scowl on how the ink seeped into the parchment until not a trace of her signature was left.

Blaise stepped up after her and with an air of nonchalance signed with a flourish. As Draco made a move to take the parchment back, Blaise grabbed Draco's wrist and with a sudden ferocity asked, "What the bloody hell did we just sign, Malfoy?"

Harry was trembling with rage at the sight of Zabini grabbing his mate's wrist like that. He was about to do something when Draco's calm and collected voice cut through the haze of violence that he was drowning in.

"You signed a contract stating that you would not tell any of the professors or Umbridge about meeting with Potter or anything about the group Potter leads. Now I would seriously let go of my wrist before my mate here decides that he will rescue me by tearing you limb from limb." Draco said.

Blaise took note of Harry's stance and the air of destruction that seemed to be wrapped around him and slowly let go of Draco's wrist.

"So we were right about you, Malfoy. You have switched sides. You must have been given that parchment from Potter." Daphne said confidently. When all Draco did as a response to that statement was to raise his one eyebrow she slowly continued, "Unless of course you stole it in one of those shoving matches that we have assumed were choreographed by both of you…If you are not denying it but still don't trust us that means…what kind of enchantments are on that parchment to ensure that we don't go off telling the professors?"

Draco smirked at Daphne's question before responding, "I'm not going to tell you but I wouldn't betray the contract if I were you."

"What is the second and third thing that we have to do in order to prove ourselves?" Blaise asked after a few moments of absorbing the fact that betraying a group that they were barely aware of would have severe negative consequences.

"Well, if you two were only trying to join the little group that Potter has going to pass the O.W.L.S. then I would say we were good, but I am thinking that isn't what you had in mind considering if you just wanted to practice you could do so on your own," Draco started and when they nodded he continued, "The war is coming soon and if you really want to be on Harry's side you are going to have to be totally committed to him and his goals. That requires a bit more trust and a lot more protection from betrayals than a little bit of parchment is going to bring."

"We do not want to sign our life away and be like the light's version of Death Eaters, Malfoy," Daphne interrupted even as she and Blaise shared a look at Draco using Harry's given name.

Draco rolled his eyes as Harry whined and snuffed at the thought. "Do you honestly think Potter would let you become his slaves? Potter is more the type to throw himself in front of a curse that would kill him than let anything happen to those that he considers friends," Draco said solemnly, even though the thought made him grimace at the stupidity of the action. Harry leaned harder onto Draco's legs and Draco obliged him by running a hand through Harry's fur. Harry looked up at Draco in contentment.

"What I was going to say is the second thing that I want from you is your participation in a ritual that will both protect you and tie you into a relationship with Harry. I will give the time and location of where to meet for this ritual when I know it myself," Draco said.

"The third thing is not for me to ask, but Har…Potter. I want you to follow Potter and Potter will determine the last thing that you need to do to earn his trust," Draco finished, realizing that he had been calling Harry, Harry and not Potter in front of the two of them.

Blaise and Daphne agreed to the meeting with Draco to perform the ritual and to whatever Harry needed to have them do in order to trust them fully. After Draco reminded them that there would be severe consequences if they told anyone about this meeting they left without even asking about the wolf at Draco's feet.

Almost as soon as the door closed, Harry changed back into human form and turned around to look at Draco. They looked awkwardly at each other for a moment before both starting to talk at once.

"Look…"

"Draco…"

Harry snapped his mouth shut but as Draco didn't seem to look him in the eye he started, "Draco, you can start first."

Draco twisted his lips into a strange smile before raising his head to look at Harry. "Look, thank you for rushing down here to save me. I am grateful that no matter how you feel about me that you will still keep your word about protecting me, but I did have the situation under control without you. If I really felt in danger, I would have syphoned off energy from Hermione and you and blasted them into the wall. Don't feel like you need to hang around, you can go now."

Harry growled at Draco's words and his face hardened. "First of all, Draco, don't you dare try to dismiss me! Hermione and I had no idea that you might have had the situation under control, you felt nervous, unsure and panicky to us which is why I practically flew down the stairs to find you. Secondly, do you really think that the reason I am here right now is only because of a promise?"

Draco stared at Harry for a few minutes before nodding decisively and replying, "The last time we spoke you told me to 'Fuck' myself and since you haven't let me come anywhere near you or accepted my apologies…so what am I supposed to think when you come barging in to the rescue?"

Harry felt the air in his lungs go out in a rush. He ran a hand through his messy hair and let out a sigh. "Draco, I owe you an apology," Harry slowly answered, "I shouldn't have been trying to avoid you today. I know that you have been trying to apologize and make up for what you did but it really pissed me off and I wanted you to suffer. I told you when you first kissed me that I wouldn't hold back if you did kiss me and I did which is why we got ourselves into this situation in the first place. Please try to understand that this is my first relationship, I am not used to so much contact and I have absolutely no idea what I am doing."

"Do you really think I have an idea of what I'm doing? I've only ever had one girlfriend in my life and she was chosen for me by my father without my say on the matter. I didn't even think I liked blokes but when the ritual told us that we were mates I realized why I was so fixated on you. I didn't know about your relatives and I didn't know that you had kept Hermione at arm's length as well. Please forgive me for making assumptions about what was going on with Hermione. All I knew was that if I was always with her I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off her," Draco responded.

"She does have that effect," Harry agreed. The tension between the two boys hung heavy in the room and Harry wasn't sure about how to disperse it. He looked at Draco and how he looked sort of defeated and realized that there was a way to show Draco that he not only accepted his apology but wanted the same things.

Harry walked up to Draco, put his arms around the stiff frame of the other boy and whispered in his ear, "She isn't the only one who I don't want to keep my hands off of."

Draco looked startled and a little uneasy but before he could open his mouth to say anything, Harry covered it with his lips.

Harry started the kiss off slow and gentle which was completely different to how the two of them usually kissed. He continued to kiss Draco slowly until he felt the tension dissipate from the body he was holding. His tongue slid across the bottom lip of Draco's asking for entrance. Draco allowed entrance immediately and quickly their tongues were sliding across each other, not fighting for dominance but exploring the bumps and ridges of the other's mouth. Harry remembering Hermione's words of encouragement moved his hands from simply holding Draco to stroking his back. He enjoyed the way Draco's back was broader and more muscular than Hermione's.

Draco broke the kiss off and sucked in a deep breath when Harry's hands slid from his back to teasing the line of his shirt. Harry internally grinned at the reactions that he was getting out of Draco as he had started to kiss down Draco's neck the moment Draco broke the kiss. He started to feel his way up Draco's shirt and sucked in his own breath as his hands warmed themselves from the heat that Draco was emitting. Harry traced the muscles of Draco's stomach with his fingertips, enjoying the way they clenched at his touch.

When he was confident enough with what he was feeling, Harry laid his full palm onto Draco's skin. Harry found that Draco had the finest chest hair and that he could raise goose bumps by swirling the hairs around in circles. He didn't know what possessed him but when he continued upwards and felt Draco's nipples he wasn't soft and gentle the way he was when he felt Hermione's breasts but instead he tweaked them roughly and continued to rub them until they were pebbled against his fingers.

Harry was rewarded with his attentions by the sounds coming out of Draco's mouth. Draco hadn't moved his hands from Harry's waist but was standing there with his head thrown back, eyes clouded over, and mouth opened. When Harry's hands started to head down Draco's chest with determination, Draco's head came forward and he muttered, "You don't need to do this Harry, I have already accepted your apology and you don't have to prove anything to me."

Harry smiled at Draco before replying, "I am not doing this for any other reason than I want to." Harry thrust his hips hard against Draco's letting Draco feel how turned on he was right then before continuing with, "Do you want me to stop?"

"Hell no!" was Draco's enthusiastic response.

Draco grabbed Harry's hips and grounded their erections against each other causing a groan to slip out from both their mouths. They once again started kissing with a passion that had been held back until now. Harry placed a hand on Draco's erection through his clothing and started to rub the outline of the cock up and down. Their breathing got heavier as Harry worked Draco's cock through his pants.

The feel of Draco's cock beneath his hand, the feel of them kissing and the sensations of Draco's hands wandering up and down his body made Harry's head spin. _This is what I have been wanting_, Harry thought, _this is what it feels like to let go of everything and just be with one of my mates. If only Hermione was here. _

Harry was just reaching for Draco's zipper when a voice came from behind them. "I don't think Harry needs our help, Hermione."

Harry froze and slowly turned around to see Hermione in the doorway. Behind her were Luna and Neville, looking highly amused and embarrassed at the scene that they had just walked into.

Harry threw his hands up in exasperation. "What the hell is going on today? Is everyone going to find out about Draco, Hermione and me today?"

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	23. Chapter 23

Disclaimer: I have no money and expect no money from this story...I am simply doing this for enjoyment, please don't make me cry! Thank you AnneHarrisforever, my beta, she does all the work so this isn't a pile of mistakes

Thanks to all my reviewers! You guys make me smile every time I read what you have to say. Thank you for the well wishes, my wedding was awesome!

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Once again, Harry had his wand pointed at people that he considered friends. _I never thought I would have to protect Draco from my friends like this, _Harry thought to himself as he shook his head in amazement at how the day was going. _I tell Draco to fuck off and look at the result, not only do six people now know of the relationship, two people almost get a show. _

Luckily for Harry, Hermione explained the situation to Luna and Neville and quickly gave them the choice of either being obliviated or participate in the ritual to tie them into the group.

"The ritual sounds like a lovely idea, Hermione, keeps the sneaks away," Luna said sounding serious and dreamy at the same time.

"If you guys want me, I would rather be a part of the group than forget about this," Neville said tentatively before continuing, "I think I can be useful and I am happy to finally know what the wink was about."

"What wink?" Harry asked.

"Oh, the wink that Malfoy threw at you when you and Hermione announced that you were a couple. I have been wondering what it meant ever since I saw it," Neville replied with a shrug.

"Ok, ok so you guys are in. We will let you know when and where to meet us for the ritual. Now can you please leave? Harry and I were in the middle of something," Draco chimed in impatiently.

Harry, Hermione, and Neville turned bright red as they remembered what the two boys were engaging in before they had been interrupted.

Luna beamed at everyone before chirping, "Come along, Neville, as I said before I don't think Harry needs our help. Although I believe Hermione will be staying."

Luna managed to guide a bright red, stuttering Neville out of the room, shutting the door on their way out.

The occupants that were left in the room burst out laughing as Draco called out, "Thanks Luna!"

The laughing stopped when Draco asked, "Now where were we?"

Harry caught the appraising look and the disappointment in Draco's face and figured that Draco must have thought that another opportunity to get closer was lost. So with great relish Harry turned around and replied, "I think we were about here," before yanking Draco closer and kissing him with the same amount of passion as before.

Harry felt his jeans get tighter as he felt Draco's hands run across the waistband of his pants. His breath caught in his throat as Hermione came up from behind them and placed her hands on their backs before reaching up and kissing anywhere she could reach. With much more confidence, Harry reached again for Draco's zipper and pulled it down with a slowness that made Draco growl with impatience. Hermione's hand came and undid the button of Draco's pants and together they pushed his pants down.

Harry never broke the kiss as he slid a hand around Hermione's and guided their hands into Draco's boxers. They felt together the length and width of Draco's shaft together and revelled in the loud groan that he let out at their exploratory touch. Hermione kept her hand lightly around the head of Draco's penis while Harry reached further down and firmly held the shaft before they both started to move their hands up and down in tandem.

Harry let Hermione have Draco's mouth and the sounds coming out of it as he started to lick and bite down the side of Draco's throat. When he got to Draco's collarbone, he pulled the shirt so that he could reach more skin but as Draco's shirt really couldn't stretch, Harry became frustrated. He realized that he wanted to have Draco completely nude in front of him so that he could touch every single part of him with Hermione. They could trace patterns in his skin and memorize every unique part of him. He also wanted then to explore Hermione with the same dedication knowing that she would be so much softer and different than Draco.

Harry briefly took in their surroundings and realized the impracticalities of what he wanted to do and where they were. He knew that they would have to be in a more secure location to act on what he wanted but now was not the time to drag them to another location. Harry made a quick decision and drew his and Hermione's hands off of Draco to the questioning look of Hermione and Draco's moan of protest.

Harry smirked at the almost silent protest Draco made at them stopping and almost laughed out loud at Draco's expression as he dropped to his knees. Harry freed Draco's cock from his boxers and got his first look at Draco. He marvelled at the differences between his and Draco's cocks. He knew he was a decent length and very wide but Draco was longer than he was but thinner. Draco's cock was so pale that the head of it had turned a deep shade of red from Hermione and him stroking it.

"Do you like what you see," Draco cockily asked but Harry could detect a hint of uncertainty deep within Draco's silver eyes.

"You have no idea," Harry responded for both him and Hermione, since Hermione was just staring at Draco's penis with a shocked expression on her face.

Harry once again took hold of Draco and slowly brought the tip of the penis to his mouth. Harry had heard about receiving blow-jobs and how wonderful they supposedly feel but had never really thought about giving them. He slowly licked the head with the tip of his tongue, finding that the slight taste of Draco didn't disturb him as he had thought it would. He continued with swirling his tongue around the head of the penis until it was in his mouth.

Harry noticed that Draco's breathing accelerated, his hands clenching the table behind him and his body shuddered as Harry uncertainly continued with his ministrations. His reaction gave Harry a little bit more confidence and he worked his mouth down over Draco's complete length. Harry had to control his breathing and gag reflex as he went down. He was very proud of himself as he made it to the base of Draco's cock and then slowly pulled up off Draco.

When he finally let Draco free of his mouth, Harry was unsurprised to find Hermione kneeling right next to him, watching what he was doing with an intensity that could be intimidating. He politely offered Draco's penis to Hermione and watched as she took the offering with as much uncertainty that he had shown. Harry watched in fascination as Hermione copied his motions with her normal perfection. He let his eyes wander up and caught Draco staring down at them in excitement and disbelief.

Harry softly smiled at the dazed expression that Draco was wearing before using a hand to swipe Hermione's hair away from her neck before leaning in and sucking it. He let go of Hermione's hair once he reached her neck and used that hand to caress down her front to her breast. Harry used his other hand to cup Draco's balls and rolled them around. He found it difficult to keep up with the different motions but thought it was well worth the effort as Hermione's moans at his ministrations were echoed by Draco.

Harry soon found the tables had turned on him when Hermione let Draco's cock fall out of her mouth to kiss him with a bruising intensity. After being kissed for all he was worth, they returned their attention to pleasuring Draco. The two of them took turns sucking, licking, stroking and swirling the beautiful pale penis as they used their free hands to touch one another.

Harry and Hermione developed a rhythm of switching from sucking on Draco's cock while the other would pump him in time with the bobbing of the head. The only sounds besides moans that came for five minutes was when Draco breathily said, "I am going to cum soon, if you keep that up for much longer!"

They both stopped immediately and looked at one another in question. Hermione raised an eyebrow at Harry and he responded with a shrug. Then, they both gave wicked grins at Draco before Harry brought his mouth down on Draco's cock with renewed vigour. Through their non-verbal conversation it was decided that Harry was going to suck Draco off this time.

Harry wasn't sure as to what to expect with having Draco's cock in his mouth. He was experienced with what coming looked like considering he was a teenage boy but this position was so different to what he had even overheard. He felt Hermione's hand that was on him become comforting as the tension in his body gave his nerves away while her other hand continued to pump Draco. Harry felt Draco run a hand through his hair as he bobbed up and down with a fast pace that was helped by the saliva that dripped from his mouth.

Harry suddenly felt Draco stiffen a second before hot cum spurted into his mouth. The sensation was a very odd one. He felt himself swallow the liquid down, noticing that the texture was more uncomfortable than the taste. The taste was purely Draco and tasted almost as good as the pre-cum. The sensation, though, of it being forcefully shot down his throat was not very pleasant. Harry felt himself make a face before having a hand turn his head and a deep kiss from Hermione erased his discomfort quickly.

As quickly as Hermione had kissed him, she let him go before saying, "Hmm that tastes good. I think I could get used to tasting Draco on you, Harry!"

Before Harry could reply he found himself being kissed even deeper by Draco. When they came up for air, Draco replied to Hermione by saying, "Oh, Hermione is right again. I do taste good on you, Harry!"

Hermione growled at the teasing in Draco's voice before jumping off the floor and sniffing delicately in disdain.

Harry laughed at the teasing that Hermione and Draco started to engage in before picking himself off the floor. Harry was still painfully aroused and his eyes darkened with lust when the two of them looked over at him again.

"Want some more, Harry?" Hermione said in a low seductive voice.

"You know I do, Hermione. We haven't finished yet and you both know it," Harry replied, his voice, an octave lower than normal.

Hermione had time to raise an eyebrow in challenge before Harry kissed her roughly. He allowed her to feel how hard he was underneath his pants and this time he didn't stop the kiss when her hands started to roam. Hermione grinded her hips against Harry's and he couldn't get enough of it. Harry felt Draco come up behind him and a shudder ran though him when Draco's mouth descended on the sensitive skin on his neck. This time Harry was determined not to panic if the two of them tried to get into his pants.

The moment was ruined when they clearly heard Professor Snape scolding some students for walking down the corridor right outside of the classroom door. With a speed that was dizzying Harry, Hermione and Draco straightened their clothing and tried to look like they were doing anything else than what they had been doing.

As the door opened Draco jumped away from them and they all pointed their wands at each other before Draco shouted, "You two make me sick! You will be spending some time in detention for making me witness that putrid display of physical affection."

"I am not spending time in detention just because you walked in on my girlfriend and I," Harry shouted back, "You have been practically stalking us for weeks now so of course you might find us together. Just admit it, Malfoy, that you are a jealous little ponce and I will let you leave without cursing you so badly you will be hurting for a month."

"Ten points from Gryffindor and Potter you will lower your wand this instant," Professor Snape gleefully intoned

"Professor, we weren't doing anything wrong!" Hermione interjected

"Another ten points from Gryffindor for interrupting me and arguing Miss Granger, I have just witnessed Mr Potter threatening a prefect and a member of the Inquisitor squad do you call that nothing?" Professor Snape sneeringly continued.

Harry noticed Hermione lowering her head and biting her lip as Snape's eyes danced with barely hidden maliciousness. "Now, Draco, you may continue to dole out the appropriate punishment."

Draco nodded before snidely stating, "One week of detention, Potter, for your inappropriate display of affection with me."

Harry narrowed his eyes in pretend anger as he truly felt like laughing and felt Hermione trying to control her face at the wording of Draco's punishment. Draco's eyes also held a deep glint of amusement. Harry morphed his face into the correct level of disgust before stalking out of the room in an apparent huff with Hermione fast on his heels.

They made it to the third floor before they collapsed against a wall in laughter. _Hopefully_, Harry thought, _Snape won't think about what Draco said. It would be a major problem if he found out about our relationship_.

Harry looked at Hermione holding her sides from laughing so hard before looking behind her to see a new Educational Decree stating: _Only parents or approved guardians are allowed to pick up students who wish to go home for the upcoming holiday break_. Harry's laughter died in his throat as the implications of this new decree sank into his conscious.

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Did I satisfy some of the cravings with this chapter? Tell me what you think!


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